Last Monday I got to spend the day in the OR. I got all suited up in surgical garb and followed a nurse around for the day. I really wanted to take my camera and get a picture of myself with the sweet hair cover on (see example below of sweet hair cover), but they discouraged us from bringing valuables into the locker rooms. I guess after a hard day in the OR some nurses are more prone to pilfer.
At first they placed me with a surgeon who had evidently had a student nurse anesthetist sign off on the wrong blood type for a patient the previous Friday. Needless to say he didn't want anything to do with any sort of student, even though as a nursing student pretty much all I can do is watch. Anyway, so I switched rooms and ended up with a great nurse and a surgeon who was very accommodating. He explained things to me and let me get up close to see what he was doing (well, within one foot because that's as close as you can get to the sterile field if you aren't scrubbed in). I got to watch an AV fistula repair and a fem-pop (femoral artery-popliteal artery) bypass which were both really neat. You can youtube either one of those and watch for yourself. I was surprisingly fine with all the blood and cutting into flesh. I bet you thought I would get queezy and barf, but I didn't!
Here's the best part. Are you ready for this? I got to put in my first catheter! On a real person! He was anesthetized but it still counts. You might be grossed out, but it's a nursing student milestone, okay?
I had a good experience in the OR but I don't think it's where I would want to work. OR nurses do a lot more than I thought and they have an important job to do, but I think I'd like to do something more patient friendly.
p.s. Jeff got a promotion and is now going to be a manager! He's learning a lot and working hard. Sorry ladies, he's taken.
