Only an OR Nurse Would Understand
Random ruminations about life in surgery.
N
o one really understands what we do on a daily basis — and
sometimes we barely understand it ourselves. For example,
we worry if our patient hasn't peed after surgery, then we
realize we haven't peed in 12 hours. Here are 5 things I'm pretty sure
only make sense to us surgical nurses.
• Get your gel on. Do you know of another
job where you scrub your hands before you
go to the restroom? OR people gel in and out
all day. Multiple times in the course of one
case. You go through a box of exam gloves
in 8 hours. Then you scrub your hands
between cases. I get relief for a break and I
gel out of the room. I remove my mask and
eyewear at the scrub sink and scrub my
hands and wrists. I gel out at the double
doors. I gel in when walking into the lounge and dressing room. I go
to the restroom and wash my hands before using the facilities.
Afterward, I wash my hands again, then gel in when I walk into the
lounge and wash my hands at the sink before I eat or drink anything.
We're gonna wash away our fingerprints!
• 1-2-3-4 Growing up, arithmetic was difficult. Still, mom insisted I
learn bookkeeping (yes, I'm dating myself). Like I was ever going to
work any job that required math. Of course, I chose surgical nursing.
And what do we do? We count, well, everything! And not just sponges.
I count the minutes left in a break or lunch to the hours left in my
shift. From how many times I stir my coffee to how many years
1 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U L Y 2 0 1 8
Behind Closed Doors
Paula Watkins, RN
• RUBBED RAW We have to wash our
hands so much that we barely have any
skin left.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
