"Circulating is so easy"

ARTCHICK-RN · Jul 2, 2007

I HAVE TO SAY THAT I LOVE THE COMMENT THAT SAID SOMETHING TO THE EFFECT *** THAT BY DOING YOUR JOB WELL, YOU MAKE IT LOOK EASY. WHAT A GREAT WAY TO LOOK AT A SITUATION, I PLAN TO PASS THESE WORDS OF WISDOM ON TO OUR STAFF, WHETHER IT BE RN, TECH, PA OR WHOMEVER, I THINK THIS STATEMENT REALLY HAS THE POTENTIAL TO LIFT SOME SPIRITS! THANKS~ :nurse:

RN Zeke · Jul 2, 2007

Who did not know an approximate pay scale when they started their education?

Call is involved with this job, depending on the hospital it might be quite demanding? Holidays and weekends along with night work is part of the big picture! Some people will work as a team and others will wash their instruments until the cows come home, or recover the patient until they are ready to leave PACU, never mind the PACU nurses doing their job. What I'm saying is there are people that will drag their feet to avoid swinging a mop, carrying trash, because they didn't go to school to do that. Maybe their or orientation should include "room turnover", anger management, manners, respect, and just how to get along with others.

passionate · Jul 5, 2007

Perioperataive Nurse: Registered nurse practicing pre-intra-post care of the surgical patient. An OR nurse is a perioperative nurse. A scrub nurse is an RN that scrubs, focuses on the sterile part of the surgery, the circulator is an RN that tends to the sterile field but also takes receipt of the pt. and meets the needs for anes. and any other provider in the room I often think of the circulator as the "traffic controller" or the maestro of the case--I told my son when he was little that I was a professional eavesdropper whether I scrubbed or circulated. That is the best description, I think.

Note: You will see surgical technicians in the scrub role; they are not scrub nurses but technicians, the tasks are the same. In Oregon however, techncians cannot circulate by law.

RN Zeke · Jul 5, 2007

Of course each state and hospital may decide the roles of their worker bees. Laws do have a huge impact on what is legally allowed. Fortunately I have worked in various hospital and surgical center roles to know what each one does. It allowed me to respect and appreciate what others do and choose my words carefully as a student and teacher.

ARTCHICK-RN · Jul 6, 2007

JUST CURIOUS HOW YOUR OR WORKS-HERE AT MY HOSPITAL, WE PRE-OP (SDS), CIRCULATE, AND RECOVER (PACU) I OFTEN HEAR OUR CORM COMMENT ON HOW FORTUNATE OUR DOCS ARE THAT THE RNS ARE SO FLEXIBLE AND ARE ABLE TO SWITCH JOBS AT ANY MOMENT. ARE THEY JUST BLOWING SMOKE UP OUR REARS?

ALSO, I WOULD LIKE SOME OPIONIONS ON THIS....

MY DIRECTOR OFTEN ASKS ME TO DO MANAGERIAL WORK-REPORTS THAT SHE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DOING BUT MAY LACK THE TIME. I AM SUPOSE TO FIT THESE EXTRA RESPONSIBILITIES INTO MY DAY OF GETTING PTS PRE-OP/CIRCULATING AND RECOVERING. I SOMETIMES FEEL LIKE I AM TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF:angryfire...AM I OVERREACTING. MAYBE I SHOULD JUST SUCK IT UP AND STOP WHINING, UH? :nono:

RN Zeke · Jul 6, 2007

You must be in a small hospital to be a "Nurse of all trades", and that is good have a well rounded education of different areas. Do you recover during call hours or all the time? In a small hospital where I worked we did PACU when we were on call. The ST or CST's did all the room turn over and the instruments, and then went to PACU to take specimens to the lab and anything else to help out. We didn't have any power struggles or ego trip problems. Sometimes bigger isn't better as smaller hospitals may offer many more learning opportunities for all the staff.

ARTCHICK-RN · Jul 17, 2007

Yes, I do work in a small, but very busy hospital. We only have 6 Or suites. We do general surgery, orthopedics,urology,eye surgeries

endoscopy, ent,pediatry,ob-because our ob nurses are to afraid to do c-sections, gyn, just to name a few. And yes our rns do recover anytime, not just on call back. For example today i did a vag hyst, got pulled to do a sigmoid colon resection-then got pulled to do recovery- and it's nothing to get pulled from one of these places to go pre-admit or check pt in to sds. Tomorrow my day starts with endoscopy-then on to orthopedics for 2 total hips, a total knee, and some arthroscopies As I had said before, our cnorm is always boasting about how good our docs have it because we are so flexible. There has been a new crisis this week among the st. However it is them fighting among each other due to back stabbing. Why can't they just get along instead of trying to make each others life miserable?

HeatherB,CST · Jul 17, 2007

I'm sorry your STs are making life difficult for everyone else. All I can say is I promise not to be petty and backstabby when I become one myself. I suppose they have a bit to learn about professionalism. I am embarassed for all the good, decent, well-mannered STs out there who are represented in part by folks like the ones you are working with. I hope your OR manager or someone is able to step in and knock some sense (figuratively, of course) into your group of drama queens/kings. Patient first, and the bickering/backstabbing only hurts the patient by diverting their attention away.

RN Zeke · Jul 17, 2007

Artchick,

You are very valuable with your many skills and versatile!!! You should get big bucks and then doing the work of the head RN. Your resume sounds very impressive. Should you want to move and take a managers job you have the experience it sounds like. Too bad about the back stabbing scrubs. Each one wants to look smarter than the other and that isn't good for the patient or the staff.

ARTCHICK-RN · Jul 18, 2007

Thank you for your replies, as for being qualified as a manager...I cannot even compare to the one that we have. She is one of the most amazing people I know. Her knowlege base is rediculous. As for big bucks, I currently make less than $20 an hour-after 2 years of working. I certainly don't feel compensated for the work that I (or any of the other RNs do), I love my job, but it has crossed my mind that in order to make any more $$ I may have to go elswhere.

I would also like to give a shout out to the st/cst...even though i have made ours out to sound horrible, i would just like you to know that I have the utmost respect for the profession ( I would like to learn it myself -and would like to say that we do have good people in our or-Its nice to be able to vent a little and call it like it is...thanks for listening to me. So, just curious do you think what we do is worth more that $20 an hour?

CurleegrlyRN · Jul 18, 2007

I've been a med/surg nurse for almost 3 years and I've worked in two different facilities....both with horrible nurse- patient ratios...let's just say it was hell. I recently transferred into the OR, something I've always been interested in. I've been an orientee in the circulating role now for almost a month and even though I've dealt with crazy situations on the floor, I do not think that circulating is easy. It's different from the floors but I don't think it's any easier than what I had to deal with before....you have a LOT of responsibilities, more than what the techs think. Yes, the more experienced circulators make it look so easy, but I think it's a highly skilled job.

PS-Also, I don't know if anyone else out there has experienced this but...has anyone dealt with surg-techs who act like they're above nurses? Since I'm from the floor, I guess I'm not used to this....

IsseyM · Jul 18, 2007

I've been a med/surg nurse for almost 3 years and I've worked in two different facilities....both with horrible nurse- patient ratios...let's just say it was hell. I recently transferred into the OR, something I've always been interested in. I've been an orientee in the circulating role now for almost a month and even though I've dealt with crazy situations on the floor, I do not think that circulating is easy. It's different from the floors but I don't think it's any easier than what I had to deal with before....you have a LOT of responsibilities, more than what the techs think. Yes, the more experienced circulators make it look so easy, but I think it's a highly skilled job.
PS-Also, I don't know if anyone else out there has experienced this but...has anyone dealt with surg-techs who act like they're above nurses? Since I'm from the floor, I guess I'm not used to this....

I agree, circulating is not easy & you do have a lot of responsibilities. Yes, i've worked with surg-techs who think they're above nurses. I've seen surg-techs try to tell nurses and even doctors what to do!!! The majority of surg-techs i work with though are great.