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Discussion

Questioning staying in the OR

I am a new grad RN who just started a position in the OR in August. I have gained experience circulating in most of the service lines (general, ortho, neuro, urology, etc). However, since the beginning I have felt unsure if I made the right decision choosing the OR. 
 

I was wondering if it's just my specific department/coworkers/managers or if it's like this everywhere. I feel belittled and unimportant as a nurse, by the scrub techs. Even some with maybe only 3 more months working experience than me. I am basically a task-rabbit there to assist their needs. They order me around to move things like trash cans, have me run for supplies like crazy, and basically throw their trash at me. Today one misused a pulse lavage and splashed me in the eye with irrigation containing blood and tissue- no apology. 
 

I already struggle with the transition from being on the floor using my skills during school to being a circulator. I know there's a different skill set not taught in school, but I'm wondering if I belong in the OR.

 

Is it just my specific unit or is it like this everywhere? Rude surgeons, anesthesia, and patients I can handle- I'm just over techs who are under my license, bossing me around as I'm their subordinate.

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    Um. That is NOT OK and it is definitely not like that everywhere. I cannot imagine management at the places I've worked not terminating someone for intentional misuse of the pulse lavage like that!

    Only you can determine if you'd like to go for another OR position in a better environment or if the OR is truly not where you want to be. Try making a list of pros and cons. If most of the cons are your coworkers and most of the pros are job duties, then you just need a new OR. If the cons are everywhere and the pros are minimal, then you may want to consider positions outside the OR. 

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    Hi

    I can definitely relate to your experience. I am currently in a nursing residency program in the OR. I have wonderful co-workers and CSTs, but since I'm new to the OR, the transition has been challenging. After just three days of following my preceptor, she stepped back, and now, under her supervision, I am completing at least 99% of the circulator's tasks in the OR. It feels like a sink-or-swim situation, and I don't like this style of training.

    I still have 20 more weeks of orientation, but I am required to complete a full year of work after orientation ends.

    Just a note—the circulator's job is to assist everyone in the operating room, yet I feel like we could use an assistant because there are simply too many tasks to handle.

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    Some scrub techs and assistants can seriously be like this and it's not okay. I have been able to learn to scrub and second assist (cannot first assist... yet), and because of how I have been treated as a circulator, I do everything in my power to not be like this. I make sure everything + anything that may be needed is in the room, if we have to put it back... so be it but at least it's there. I started and still primarily do total joints and any good place has rules on not leaving the room once draped, so this became mandatory anyways unless you wanted to be calling out for someone to get you something which is incredibly annoying. The whole trash can thing and such... like that kind of drove me mad myself, so I will just kick and drag stuff around scrubbed in and have become incredibly good at it. Sometimes I will ask/ throw the trash and apologize or be made fun of when I miss the trash can because I'm no basketball player, worst case I just leave it on the end of my table. I've also been sprayed by a pulsavac and such, it does happen, kind of just laugh it off. 
     

    Honestly some scrubs, assistants, and surgeons are really needy, others are rude, but it also comes down to you as well, with more experience learn the surgeon's preferences and the people in the room's preferences and you will run and be asked to do less... because you already have it and you're 2 steps ahead of them at all times. That's always my goal. 

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    OR nursing is VERY different from the floor . They cannot be compared to one another. I see you started this thread in January. Have things gotten any better? When I started in the OR , in my service line , there was a very caustic , rude, unprofessional scrub tech who was clearly a bully. I could handle him, but when I saw and heard the things he said to and did to other colleagues, I reported him to HR. An investigation ensued and not long after, he was put on administrative leave then never came back. We similarly got rid of several other toxic people in our team and now have a fantastic supportive, kind , professional workplace . Just because you are new, Do not accept hostility , toxicity as being 'part of the job' . Report up the management chain, right up to HR if you need to. Best of luck on your journey. 

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