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BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
Paula Watkins, RN, CNOR
Giving Thanks
It's one big happy family in the OR.
I
n the OR, the season never
changes, but the calendar tells
me Thanksgiving's coming up. A
holiday for the many things we
take for granted through the year.
Also a holiday for sharp knives,
family gossip and overdoing it. This
nurse is thankful for her brothers
and sisters around the surgical table. Most of the time, anyway.
Thank you, anesthesia providers, for expert handling of our chief
responsibility: patient care. I admire you for standing up to surgeons if
a patient is too hemodynamically unstable to go under, for not letting
us touch a patient until his blood work is in order, for being able to
sneak an endotube through the vocal cords of a patient with no neck.
We can do without the providers who direct circulators to affix monitor leads, wrap blood pressure cuffs and stock their workstations
while we're positioning the patient and doing our own jobs.
Circulating nurse, you run circles around everyone. When the pick
sheets aren't complete or correct (and they never are), you're the one
picking up the slack. When everyone else forgets what's needed for a
case or is just too lazy to fetch it themselves, you're chasing it down
between cases. Sure, you get blamed for the long room turnover, but
hold your head high. Don't let them see you sweat. And stop sitting
down to chart. Don't you know that wastes time you'll need for yet
another supply room run?
I'm thankful for scrub techs. They think ahead. They've done so many
cases with Dr. Kill-Me-Now that they know what he wants before he
does. Their skills, knowledge and cheerful gossip keep him happy and
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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | N O V E M B E R 2013
