What's Ortho Nursing Like?

[Rockstar706]

Basically I would like to know what a day in the life of an ortho nurse is like. Is ortho nursing in anyways similiar to physical therapy? What age groups do you work with as an ortho nurse? What made you decide to specialize in ortho?

[amason2021, CNA]

chinotto_21 said:

I've been working on an ortho floor for 9 months now and I've decided to leave. It's extremely demanding, both physically and mentally. We have a 36 bed unit and do hips, knees, fractures, ankles and spinal surgeries. We also get "off service pts" from geri, general surgery, internal medicine and oncology. Our typical assignment is 6 pts (with atleast one of them being an immediate post-op). On day shift, there are Physios and NA's but on evening and night shift, there is no additional help, the nurse is responsible for doing everything, from head to toe. I often work evenings and most days I barely have enough time to eat supper. I do not take a coffee break and often leave 30-40 mins after my shift (unpaid). It is by far the worst working conditions I have seen so far. In my 9 months being there I have seen atleast a dozen new nurses getting trained and quitting within their training period.

Anyways, this is my experience with ortho, and I realize that your own working conditions may vary greatly depending on your floor's budget and management. My only suggestion is that if you find that it's not for you, say it at the beginning. The longer you stay, the harder it will be for you to transfer to another unit/department

Pretty much me as a PCT. But I'm ready to go to another unit because I'm dreading going to work every day just because of our unit. I love other units tho. They're more laid back but I'm hating ortho in general.