Warm up jackets mandatory

hi everyone!

i just started working at a HCA hospital in the O.R. 6 months ago. i have 30 yrs experience in the O.R. 9 of which were as a CST. I also was a traveler for 19 years of that and worked in roughly 34 O.R.'s. I am now a staff nurse in a small hospital. I really love this job and plan on retiring here. It's near beautiful beaches, I'm in my mid 50's and my body can't handle the craziness it use to! lol! anyway, the facility here has a mandatory rule that we wear warm up jackets ALL the time while working..... I've never seen this anywhere in my travels. Has anyone experienced this? I am a hormonal menopausal female and i sweat. also, one of our anesthesiologists has to warm up the room prior to incision which is ok, but with a jacket on, i'm dying....

thanks for your input!

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

It's part of the AORN recommended practices. In my facility though, there aren't enough jackets to go around plus the ones that do return from laundry are so big they can't be work near the field for fear of contaminating it!

[Junebug59, RN]

Thank you for your response Rose_Queen! that's exactly it, it's an AORN "recommended" practice. Our O.R. Director is new, meaning his first Director job. he was a charge nurse promoted. i think he wants his O.R. perfect but you have to think realistically..... half the time we don't have the correct sizes for everyone. i am slightly overweight and big boned so i like my jacket big and roomy which also is a problem when you're prepping and opening sterile items.... so frustrated with this rule

[icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN]

Maybe he could order the disposable jackets, they are pretty light and we all liked them.

[schnookimz]

We have to wear them too but we have the disposables, very lightweight. They never keep me warm enough!

[MeiLana]

We are doing this at our facility, as well. We are short on enough to go around and enough of the right size. I think they're going to order more and push that we fully convert to wearing the jackets at all times.

[Rntr]

Sounds like you might be in Vero Beach? I interviewed once there and decided Ididn't want that job bad enough...

[SandraCVRN]

We just started this too.

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[heather42r]

We do this too. The techs have to wear the jackets to open the room, then take them off to scrub and then put them back on before they touch a patient to help move them off OR table. We are supposed to wear them to prep and touch/move patients.