Robotics or Cardiothoracic

[countrygirl1234]

Hello all!

i will be registering for an OR interview and shadow event soon. I couldn't be more excited! A draw back though, is I can only pick one specialty! I was going to choose cardiothoracic (as I have already shadowed in general and plastics), but when I went to register, I saw they had Robotics there too. I thought that would be great to see and participate in! Can anyone tell me more about robotics? Which ones would y'all choose to shadow and interview in? I will be a new grad; however, they do welcome new grads in all specialities :)

[Cat10]

I would be interested in hearing about robotics as well!

[WhoDatWhoDare, BSN, RN]

It's a laparoscopic case that the surgeon uses a console to control the instruments. I am CT but have done multiple services robotically, the harder one is CT. If you can do lap cases, you can do robotic with minimal orientation, in my opinion.

[Rory8]

I agree, robotic cases are very similar to laparoscopic cases. I was recently trained in robotics and I really enjoy those cases. There is a lot more down time when the circulator doesn't do much, but it does require a bit more set up and take down (depending on which robot they are using). Do you think you'd like active, challenging cases or less intense cases? The other pro for robotics is that they can do many specialties (gyn, oncology, urology, some CT even) so you'd see more variety than just CT. I think they are both really interesting and you'd learn so much either way. Good luck!

[ggoodman]

I ran an open heart room for while before I became a nurse manager, if you want to work hard and be a part of something life saving amazing and challenging at times go OH. We really save lives as in if we are not successful the patient dies. Sometimes this happens despite our best efforts.

[SQueenRN, BSN]

So what did you Pick? One specialty is so limiting. Yes, it's important to know one service really well but it's even more important to be able to do everything in the OR.

[Its 5 oclock somewhere]

I have done both. I worked for a hospital in a large health system. We had 6 robots in my OR. We did a lot of robots. A LOT! We had many surgeons that were top notch and we had some that were slow as molasses. Our OR staff had turnovers down to a science and of course it still wouldn't be fast enough for some surgeons. ;(

I also worked at a county hospital on the heart team. Most amazing things I ever seen.

I miss doing hearts every single day.

Robots.....Not at all. lol

Good luck with whatever you choose.

[mhy12784]

I do a ton of robotics and thoracic (just thoracic we don't have open heart ). My personal favorite is thoracic robots though,, they're awesome cases to learn and participate in.

My hospital actually uses robotics as a crutch to train new nurses as all our robotic cases have two circulator nurses, so management figures might as well put the new person who doesn't know anything as the second nurse.