You know you're an OR nurse if...

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Wow, we really haven't had a thread on this since 2005? https://allnurses.com/operating-room-nursing/you-might-be-115065.html

Looks like it's time to update!

You know you're an OR nurse if...

Recycling isn't just done at home. All those expired, unused (from either opened and set up but case cancelled or practice setups) drapes, table covers, sponges, basins, etc go home to be used as painting drop cloths, cleaning supplies, and whatever other uses you can come up with.

You use your scrub pants as scrap paper, because hey, you aren't doing the laundry! (I like to refer to it as the un-loseable scrap paper, because if that scrap paper goes missing, you've got bigger problems!)

You know the best routes to use at what times to get to the hospital within that 30 minute on call response time.

You know which surgeons you want operating on you… and which will never be allowed within 100 feet of even your worst enemy.

The same goes for coworkers about who's allowed to be in the OR when you're having surgery.

So what are some other "you know you're an OR nurse if…" out there that you have?

[springchick1, ADN, RN]

You know you're an OR nurse when you drop something at home and don't pick it up because it's not sterile anymore.

[FlyOR]

You know you're an OR nurse when you hand people stuff that they murmur under their breath unintelligibly that they want.

You know you're an OR nurse when you figure out you've created a "sterile field" around whatever vegetables you're chopping/ washing on a cutting board.

You know you're an OR nurse when you require "read back" for every damn question someone asks.

You know you're an OR nurse when someone says "Eww Pus" and you want to see from where and how much.

You know you're an OR nurse when your kid comes to you with a good size cut and is bleeding and you say, "aw that's not much, put pressure on it".

You know you're an OR nurse when you finish your dinner before anyone else has made a dent in theirs.

[MeiLana]

You know you're an OR nurse when other nurses ask you why you are holding your hands "up" after washing.

YKYanORnurse when .....

....you think reusing a hand towel in your home bathroom is not acceptable.

....you wonder if kitchen dishes can be obtained in peel-packs.

....you think a sterile core is just what a proper house would need.

[PureLifeRN]

You know you're an OR nurse when you "dance" with all the surgeons in the hospital, and its no big deal :)

[GadgetRN71, ASN, RN]

The one about finishing dinner first is very true. People are always stunned by how fast I finish a meal.

You know you're an OR nurse when you refuse to wear uncomfortable shoes, no matter how "sexy" or pretty they may be.

It takes a lot to gross you out, and you have little patience for germaphobes, since you tango with blood, bodily fluids and chunks of people daily.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

You know you're a cardiac OR nurse when asystole and vfib are perfectly stable rhythms.

[Stacey30]

You know you're an OR nurse if...

...you open your child's package of string cheese and let them pull it out as if it's suture.

...your hands are spotted with Dermabond to cover little cuts and painful hang-nails.

...students/observers wrinkle their nose and/or gag at the smell of burnt tissue and you don't bat an eye.

[Foggy14]

...you read the news story about the head transplant and think, "You couldn't pay me enough to do that case...that OR is going to be a **** show!"

Valery Spiridonov will have his head transplanted onto another body this year - Business Insider

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

...you read the news story about the head transplant and think, "You couldn't pay me enough to do that case...that OR is going to be a **** show!"

Valery Spiridonov will have his head transplanted onto another body this year - Business Insider

Yeah, that's a little too Frankenstein-ish for me. I can't even see how it would work- can a completely severed spinal cord even really grow into the spinal cord of another body? And even with cooling the brain so low, there's still going to have to be neuro deficits from that.