What's so great about OR?

spitcher2 · Jun 16, 2016

I respond to difficult surgeons with matter of fact questions with tact and respect. If that doesnt work.... Silence. How do you let others know you are not to be toyed with??? Be curious and interested in your patients condition, read up and know your procedures. Ask your tech's lots of questions about the setup, the instruments and case flow. Learn to know your stuff. Be interested, be helpful to others. The OR is a very good long term position if you can stay interested. If you get bored and think you want to be somewhere else, then be somewhere else. It's painful to have to work with other RN's who are burned out and don't want to work there anymore.

acerbia · Jun 16, 2016

OR definitely has pros and cons. I won't repeat a lot of the great posts here so far, but some things that haven't been mentioned already are your nursing skills - You won't use any of these in the OR. CRNAs do the meds, blood, intraoperative monitoring, etc. Preop does IVs, meds, vitals. The RN in the room does computer charting; setting up equipment for use during the surgery; positioning and prepping the patient; counting with the scrub; dropping meds on the field (local and double antibiotic for irrigation, most often. We don't actually administer medications); setting up the room with whatever the surgeon prefers for that surgery; place Foleys (CRNA places NG/OG tubes). The only real nursing-specific thing that we do is positioning with regards to making sure the patient is free from nerve injury/damage and pressure sores/skin breakdown. We do skin assessments (but not like how you do a typical head-to-toe in nursing school, it's mostly focused) too, but that's essentially it.

I think in the OR, you either love it or hate it. The RNs in the room are amazing at what they do; it's a very special skill set that no other unit or nurse does. Not everyone is cut out for the OR and that's ok, it doesn't mean you suck or you failed at anything. There are some ORs that have their circulating nurses do a lot more than tech support/running, but mine is not such a place. If you're interested, see if you can shadow for a few days, rotating through the different specialties if possible. You need more than just one 8-hr shift and 3 surgeries to get a good feel of what the RN does, in my opinion. Some doctors are notoriously difficult to work with, regardless of their specialty. So it would be prudent to see the good, bad, and the ugly

2mint · Jun 17, 2016

...I just didn't actually know what circulators did before starting. I don't like running around grabbing supplies, answering all the doctors phones and the residents pagers. I don't like hauling around heavy equipment or dealing with nit picky surgeons...I feel like I'm wasting my education.

I had one clinical rotation in the OR, saw three different cases. I applied to a periop position solely because they have a higher pay range. I got the interview appointment but canceled it the next day because I remembered what the circulator did: the underlined.

2mint · Jun 17, 2016

I love the OR...Highly specialized, longest orientation of any specialty.

"by birdie22 Apr 24, '13

...For about 2.5 weeks, we were in a classroom setting, being taught by an OR educator about instruments, counting, sterile technique, how to glove/gown, etc. Then for about 3 months, we were each assigned a service (neuro, ortho, general, thoracic, etc). After those initial 3 months, we have been rotating fairly quickly through the other services, averaging about 3-4 weeks per service to learn both scrub and circulate. The goal for management is that we are able to staff independently a room in any service at the 9-10 month mark..."

"Apr 24, '13 by MereSanity, BSN, RN

They cut orientation to 6 months at my hospital...scrubbing is a maybe one week stint that depends on if there are cases. Your program sounds much more in depth to me. Our orientees just get thrown out pretty much day one into cases and depend on their "preceptor" to teach them everything."

Crunchtime · Jul 31, 2016

As easy as our work is, comes with a great responsibility. We are responsible for the overall flow of the OR. Some might think that we are servants of the surgeons, or a waiter and runner, or a secretary. But we are not. We are responsible for our patient especially their safety. Circulating can be easy but it comes with a great risk. Nerve damage, skin injury (burns, decubitus), patient falling off the OR table (which is just unbelievable but happened to some of my colleagues), wrong site surgery, RFO's, surgery on a wrong patient, Fire in the OR. Safety is key in the OR, without that there's a big chance that you could harm your patient. Just keep in mind, treat your patients like your own. Treat them like they're your loved one, cause if you do patients will thank u for advocating for them while they're under.

RobtheORNurse · Aug 1, 2016

I love the OR and have since I first stepped into one at age 18 as an Army Private in Medic training. I have spent over 30 years in nursing, 25 of it in the OR.