Paula Watkins, RN
L
et's face it, there are so many
aspects of life in the OR that are
downright frightening. From the spooky
and shadowy to the gross and ghoulish, we nurses know all about
horror. And even though this curmudgeonly caregiver considers
herself virtually un-spookable at this point in her career, there are
still a few things that can still trigger my tachycardia.
• EMR exorcism. There's no other way to explain it: Your EMR
program must be possessed by gremlins. It's only the second case
of the day and you've been kicked out of the system twice and
frozen the screen once. You're behind in the redundant charting
and documenting implant information in 4 different places, and by
the end of the day you wouldn't be surprised if you were asking for
divine intervention from the IT
department.
• Devil is in the details.
Following the rules, know-
ing the recommendations
and keeping up with my
responsibilities leave me walk-
ing out the door like
Frankenstein at the end of the day.
And don't forget to jot down every-
thing you do. If you didn't document
it, after all, it didn't happen.
Scary Surgery
Forget ghosts and goblins, these real-life horrors make my blood run cold.
