Typical OR shift?

A typical shift is really going to depend a lot on your facility. Is it a trauma center? Does the OR run 24 hours? How is it staffed for evening and night shift hours? If you want to know what a typical shift is like at your facility, you should ask for a day to shadow. That will give you the best picture of what your shift could look like.

I work in cardiac surgery at a level 2 trauma center. My typical shift begins with getting my room ready for the day: turning on equipment, pulling up cath films on the computer, signing into the EMAR and reading about my patient.

Then I go out to preop and interview my patient, verify procedures and surgeon, verify consents, and transport the patient to the OR.

In the OR, my first focus is on getting the patient over to the OR bed, connecting anesthesia monitors, and assisting the anesthesia provider during induction and line insertion. I am then responsible for inserting the foley, counting with the scrub person, and positioning and prepping the patient. During the procedure, I open additional supplies for the scrub person as they are needed, complete my documentation, and coordinate with anesthesia and perfusion as far as medications, blood products, and anything else. Once the surgery is finished, I am putting dressings in place, calling report to ICU, and helping anesthesia transport the patient to their ICU room.

Depending on the number of cases for the day and whether I am on call or not, I may only have one case during my shift. Sometimes, I'll start a second and be relieved by the call person. Sometimes, I am the call person and stay until all cases are finished. My record shift? It ended at 7:45 the next morning. Yep, that's right, more than a 24 hour shift. Not the norm, but definitely possible.

Definitely get the lowdown on required call hours, call response time (mine is 30 but there is another nearby facility whose cardiac team must be ready to go in 15 minutes), how often you get called in or have to stay late during the average week, etc. But again, the best way to see what a shift will be like is to ask for a day to shadow. I'm kind of surprised it wasn't offered as part of the interview.

When I first started working in the OR, I didn't have to choose a specialty. In our main OR, everyone takes turns doing everything. I had my favorites and not so favorites. Hated uro and gyn, ambivalent about ortho and neuro, and liked general and vascular. Hearts, on the other hand, are off in their own world. And that's where I found my niche in the OR. It may take some trial and error to find the right specialty team, but start with what interests you the most.

OR is great if you like not having much pt or family contact. In my first OR, at a teaching hospital with med students & residents and nursing students and PT, OT, etc. students, I enjoyed the atmosphere - except for the true B's - and they were myriad. Being a guy, I think I had it easier than the new female staff. But I still had my share of razzing and being put down. I had to learn to laugh it off & not take it too personally. I even figured out how to hit back and make the razzers look bad, which is not my normal personality. They laid off of me after I turned the tables.

I lasted there for a year but wish I'd stayed. (transferred to ER, BTW, which was also filled with B's and I didn't much like our junk ER). I would have arrived eventually to run the place. Oh, well...

In my 2nd OR, it was still a teaching hospital, but much smaller and quieter, less flamboyant, calmer egos (egoes?). A whole different atmosphere prevailed, despite still having plenty of drama. I was Evening/Night Charge. We finished up the day shift cases and handled

after-hours emergencies. I never got to scrub, being the only RN, and had to be available to help Anesthesia with meds. I loved the job for the most part, worked with some great people who are still my friends all these decades later.

I happened to enjoy big cases & fast cases, belly and ortho, kidney and chest, not quiet Eye or painstaking Plastic or Hand cases. Hated Cysto, Broncho, I know I would hate outpt and having to start all those IV's. Forget Open Heart - too many prima dona surgeons, nurses,

and techs.

Do check about Call. We had to be dressed & ready to work in an hour. There were no pagers or cell phones back then so we had to stay by a phone or in the hospital. We got off the day after we'd worked cases on call, but most hospitals need you to stay over and work the next day if you were already scheduled to do so.

Good luck.