1 3 2 • 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 A N U A R Y 2 0 1 9
I
n OR years, I'm officially old. I'm that nurse who thinks that if it's
not broken, keep it so I don't have to learn how to use new stuff.
And I'm that nurse who's suddenly surrounded by BSNs who
were still in diapers when I started in surgery. It hasn't been easy get-
ting used to these youngsters.
• The music in the OR. If you can call that expletive-laced screech-
ing music. OMG, something is playing, but all I can hear are derogato-
ry remarks about women. I look around and I see anesthesia bobbing
his head along with the first assist, the surgeon and the 2 techs. I'm
standing there with a whiskey-tango-foxtrot look on my face, wonder-
ing how that can be a song when you can't hum the tune or even sing
the lyrics.
• Sense of humor. Nothing's worse than 2 young techs giggling
through the entire case at the same jokes I heard surgeons
tell 30 years ago. "Paula and I have a strange and wonder-
ful relationship. She's strange and I'm wonder-
ful." Or the surgeon sends the new circulator
after an Otis elevator. "And don't you dare
come back without it!"
• Texting in the OR. These youngsters have
withdrawal symptoms if their cell phone is not in
their hands after just so long. Give them their cell
phone and they totally zone out and become disas-
sociated from the world around them. I had to prac-
tically yell at a young male tech to stop texting and
move so I could get around him and the abandoned
case cart he was leaning against. The stretcher I
I'm Surrounded by Youngsters
Who let all these twentysomething nurses into my room?
Behind Closed Doors
Paula Watkins, RN
