Specialties within the OR

[utkayla]

Hey there nurse friends, I have a question for all my OR people. I have worked in the OR for about 7 months now in a busy 20 room OR. Recently I have joined the heart team, which required additional training on top of my general orientation. Both scrubs and circulators have to go through additional training in order to do open hearts, and they take separate heart call, which is much more than general call since it is a smaller group of people who can do these cases. Since I began doing hearts, there has been a lot of discussion amongst the group about whether or not the heart team should be considered a specialty and thus be paid more. Most people have remarked that in other ORs it is a specialty, but I would like to hear from others about this topic. Are there specialties within your OR, and if so, are these staff members paid more for being trained to work in that particular service? Any other comments/opinions on your experience with this would be greatly appreciated.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Our heart team is a separate specialty. Other staff are assigned to a service line coordinator as their first line manager, but they are expected to cover all specialties except hearts. We do not receive a salary differential or a higher on call pay rate for being on the heart team. We do make a lot more money, but that's because of all the call time spent working.

[tennisnurse]

I work in the CVOR and we don't get pay diff for being CV, however the OR in general does get a pay diff as a critical care dept. I prefer CV to general surgery unless it's trauma. Good luck.

[gelli.25]

In my OR, there is too a separate team for CV cases. They do not get paid extra. They are the only ones to take call whenever there is a heart or CV case to come in; they do not take general call.

[Crunchtime]

depends on your facility.. CVOR is pretty much routine compared to and OR with different services