Tales From Behind The Mask - OR Nursing How-To

As a labor and delivery room with a fear (performance anxiety) over learning the OR , I have to say it was wonderful to "see" the OR through the eyes of a nurse I haven't intentially awakened and irritated by calling him or her in for a stat csection. This is a great insight and something I cannot wait to share with my fellow labor and delivery nurses because we are all going through scrubbing and circulating right now officially (we have all been there in a hurry with our hearts beating out of our chests), and I totally appreciated and enjoyed this article..Thank You and well done! Martha

you sound like you are an amazing OR nurse. I have had 12 surgeries and would love for you to be my nurse.

Thank You! I graduate from nursing school in May with my BSN, and I am planning on pursuing a carrer in the OR. You have given me hope that, as a new nurse I can suceed in the OR environment. I have always been so facinated by the OR and surgery in general. I plan on applying for a perioperative internship at the local university hospital, where they teach nurses to scrub and circulate. When I share my goal with other nurses, they always say, "you'll never get a job there as a new grad, you'll have to have some med-surg experience." That always irritates me to no end. :angryfire I have no intention, what so ever, on going into the Med-Surg field. I feel like my heart belongs in the OR. My main goal is becoming a first assisting RN. Do you have any thoughts on that? Have you had any experiences with them? Thank you again for your story. It was such a unique, and often untold look at nursing.

OR works is adventurous.Truly it needed a very good pair of dancing shoes,( i said dancing shoes because when i worked as circulator as if you are dancing)to a different tunes of forceps clanging, noisy vents,suction galloping and group of the team chanting or discussing..But, being one, it takes a lot of quick mind and body to do your job.And most, butt heads are always there in the field, thats absolutely true...In all cases, Patient care and concern is always the first.

Witchy, I too was a CST before RN and worked 25 years in surgery. I also worked 5 years for plastic surgeon, then traveled for 2. Couple of years at Surgery Center, and one at a Women's Hospital. I now am 5 years and counting in ER in a small hospital. As you say shoes are a big deal in surgery and I never heard anyone put it quite so well. Surgery gets in your blood (no pun intended!) You may find this interesting but I got the idea when I went out to eat at a restaurant named Captain D's. Whenever a patron walked through the door all of the workers on the front line stopped for a second and spoke a friendly "HEllo", then proceeded with the task at hand. So... as a surgical tech I make it my practice when a patient entered the OR to turn from my backtable and just give a kind "HELLO". then turn and go about my business. The RN on the case thanked me for it and thought it was a good idea. It has been a long time since I worked there but from what I understand the practice is still carried on! I know it has been awhile since you posted this article but I just joined and anything about surgery catches my eye. If you see this let me know.

Beccarner, yes we still do that. In the OR, I work for in Alberta, Canada, we scrub and circulate. Whenever, I scrub, I always take a few seconds and say hello to the patient and when I bring the patient in I always make a point of introducing everyone in the room. Witchy, you are bang on and funny about the OR. I love OR nursing and would not go anywhere else and if I do then I probably left nursing all together.

AGDMARIE, It is crazy for your institution to think that you should have med/surg experience before you can work in the OR! These two places are differant as night and day. The only similarities are post-op patients from the OR. You can learn about where there incisions are and learn about discharge information. Nurses in the OR are a differant kind of nurse altogether. I now am working in the ER, and that utilizes all of the skills I learned in nursing school such as injections, starting lines, nasogastric tube insertion, toiletting patients.Nursing school does not prepare a nurse for the OR, now the other way around yes. Working in the OR as a CST helped me very much in the following ways. I knew anatomy, and had seen it first hand ,like the back of my hand. I knew all about drains, I knew and saw the beating heart when a coronary bi-pass was being performed. I saw tendons and bones from the inside out. Even though I was one up on the other students I kept my mouth shut in order not to be a know-it-all. Only one time did an instructor ask me a question about a surgery. I think they resented me for it was a part of nursing that they did not know. I showed them by ranking 2nd in my class, and influenced many other CST's to go to nursing schoo.

Thanks so much for your Pearls of wisdom! Im very much interested in going to OR nursing after I graduate. Can you give advice on how to survive nursing school and what good skills to hone into to be a more efficient OR nurse. I've heard getting critical care experience and med/surg are good skills to have before getting into OR. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank you so much for your awesome interpretation of being an OR nurse. I am a new graduate and got an amazing position at a private outpatient surgery center as a floater OR to PACU ..lots of ortho ..hands feet knees some minor plastics and some ent..mainly ortho.. I was hoping you could give me some good tips so i dont crash and burn. Whoever said it is right they do not prepare you in RN school to do OR. I loved my PACU rotation best but cannot wait to hit the OR I start monday and I am scared to death. So anything you could tell me to help me hit the ground running would be appreciated. Thank you for your great entry!!

What a delight to read this article! And what perfect timing for me to read it! I am a 2nd year RN student, and tomorrow I get to spend my day in the OR. I have been looking forward to this experience since I found out about it from friends who were in the RN & LPN programs before I began my journey of becoming an RN. After my OR orientation today I was feeling a little nervous about going tomorrow! For the first time I felt like I was going to be sick, and felt so worried that I would inadvertently contaminate something or worse. But reading this article lightened my mood, eased some of my worries, and brought back the excitement!!! If only you were the circulating nurse in my OR room tomorrow! I hope whomever the OR nurse is, that she is as willing to share her experience with me as you have been through this article! Thank-you!!!!

I had the most WONDERFUL two days in the OR!!!!! I'm already sad that I don't get to go back tomorrow. The staff let me scrub in for one orthopedic surgery... they let me gown and glove the surgeon... and then the surgeon used me as his assistant! It was AMAZING!

Thank you so much for this post. I am currently in my third year of nursing school in BC, Canada. In the last year or so, I have expressed an interest in getting some experience in the OR to my instructors. It seems that me being vocal about this desire has made them try harder to keep me out of the OR... I have been in peoples' ears about wanting this experience for a year now and still nothing! Now, in my third year I finally have the opportunity to do my "OR follow-through" because I am one of the only ones who has not done this (aside from spending an hour and a half watching my medical patient receive a pacer, which is a very minor surgery I understand). I have met nothing but dead ends as far as asking my instructors to spend time in the OR... I always get responses along the lines of "you need more time in the medical/surgical floors to get your skills up", "you'll narrow your opportunities if you go straight from nursing school into the OR", "if you feel you have the personality where you'd rather be in the OR... (the assumption that OR nurses do not interact with patients and are "cold" I assume?). I don't understand why instructors are so against allowing students to explore what they find interesting. This particular instructor actually forbade me from even going into the OR on my own time as a student observer. I don't understand why they have been making it so difficult for me. I was actually starting to think that maybe everyone was right, until I read this article. Feeling bummed out and discouraged, I decided to start looking in the right places for stories from people who have actually spent time in the OR and not from biased instructors, and this article was exactly what I needed. THANK YOU for sharing a different side of OR nursing! I realize that this was posted long ago, but if you're still around, or to any other OR nurses, I would really appreciate some words of wisdom because it seems I am fighting a losing battle!-- Kari the Student NursePlease allow me to clarify: I am not trying to criticize nursing instructors in this post, I am simply wondering what is with all the stigma regarding the OR and student experience in the OR?