Vent: The one thing I don't like about my job

[PetiteOpRN]

First off, I love my job. Love it.

What really gets to me (especially lately) is the attitude from physicians and mainly other nurses that OR is the easiest thing on earth. I work neurosurgery in a level 1 trauma hospital, and I don't for the life of me understand why floor/unit nurses need to talk down to me when I call them to give report. Don't they have better things to do?

It's also fun to go to hospital-wide events (ie ACLS recert) and hear snide comments the whole time.

Of course it starts at the top: the nurse recruiter is famous for saying things like OR nurses are the least versatile and really can't do anything else after a few years in surgery.

The physician I work for PRN hired a new (former ICU) RN to be his nurse clinician and first assist. 9-months later and she scrubs, arranges her mayo beautifully, and then looks at the field in terror for the next hour or so. But there is still this attitude that OR is no harder than tying your shoes, and a nurse who is CNOR certified probably can't take a temperature or figure out what their patient's gender is. (BTW, this is the same RN with the artificial nails: final ruling was artificial nails are fine because that was allowed in the unit. That's right, AORN standards be darned.)

[daVinciNurse]

YIKES! If OR nurses are "least versatile" and "cant do anything" then ask the floor/unit nurses to come work OR for the day! They will quickly learn that what we do may not be the type of nursing they are familiar with, but a very unique specialty in itself!! And I would put a bug in the ear of your infection control dept about the nails....along with a copy of the AORN standard. Those standards weren't just written up one day on a whim....they have sound references and evidence based research to back them up!!!

[PetiteOpRN]

That's all been done, and yet opinions have not changed.

She's had much more than 1 day, and instead of admitting that OR nursing is requires any sort of training, the physician and administrators think that she's just "slow."

[daVinciNurse]

One more thought on the issue of the fingernails....perhaps a phone call to risk management (do they want to try to fend off a lawsuit for a surgical site infection caused by non-compliance with the hand hygiene STANDARD OF CARE IN ORs???) or my facility has an "anonymous compliance hotline" we can call and report anything we think is putting staff or patients at risk.

[Mr. & Mrs. RN]

Yeah, and when I asked the recovery nurse to come back and help while I did my counts, she started shaking in her boots when I asked her to place a Foley. It's not that she can't, but it's not something she does commonly. I recognize that she has weaknesses and some areas, and she knows I would pee my pants if she asked me to do an IV!

Put it this way, the floor nurse might know a little about a lot, but we know a lot about a little

[Argo]

We do learn how to put in a Foley with one hand, one eye, upside down and in the dark...... LOL. Doing sedation we learn how to get an IV really quickly after a pt rips it out in disagreement with their colonoscopy..... we learn how to skim a chart and get stuff done in under 5 minutes.

With all that, ill give you my standard reply to what other People think.... who cares what they think. Offer to trade jobs for the day an see what they do....

[BridgetJones]

Well then, I'd like to see them set up for an emergency crani or do anything helpful during a difficult intubation. I've done both and I think the OR is easier in some ways, but I still have some long days working very hard. Overall, I'm getting paid the same to do a job I enjoy much more, so I don't really care what anybody else thinks!

[Scrubby]

I get the same thing, other nurses don't seem to have any understanding of what we do in the OR. They think we do no patient care whatsoever and we just hand instruments all day!

A couple of years ago I had to do half a day in PACU for part of this post grad course. I was asked by an RN to give a patient morphine. I refused because it's been years since I've given medication to a patient and I wasn't familiar with the units pain protocols. She actually said 'you're an RN aren't you?'. I just smiled and asked her if she could scrub for a AAA. She looked confused and I said 'you're an RN aren't you?'

I believe all nursing students should do at least one day in the OR, as a means to debunk some of the myths about OR nursing.

[PetiteOpRN]

I go back and forth between caring and not caring.

I guess what I'm witnessing right now is if that PACU RN said, "oh, sure I can scrub a AAA," rinsed her hands at the scrub sink, gowned, gloved, and handed random instruments during the case following something that vaguely resembles sterile technique. And then everyone pretended like she actually did a fine job, because you barely need to stand upright to be an OR nurse.

The hiring prejudice is expensive because it takes this nurse hours to spread and open for the simplest of cases (we're talking 45+ minutes for a Mohs setup), and puts patient's at risk.