Behind Closed Doors
BCD
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knee when I get to spend the day — and sometimes the night — with
him. Not to wax nostalgic, but I love working with the surgeon who
has been doing surgery as long as I have, or longer. There is real
music on in the room (and not at a decibel that makes dogs howl). We
can talk about the good ole bad days.
Making a list, checking it twice
As many of you have the battle scars to prove, nursing is different in
the Main OR. Not just longer cases and sicker patients, but little
things like instant odor recognition. All you need is a whiff to know
it's a GI bleed or gangrene — and to know you'll need Xeroform or at
least oil of peppermint all over your mask.
And the Main OR teaches you to be prepared. I still make 2 check-
lists. List No. 1 is to ensure I have everything in the room that I'll need
before I go to get the patient.
• Do I have the safety strap, arm boards and hardware to attach the
equipment to the bed?
• Are the settings on the cautery correct?
• Is there a suction apparatus in the room? Preferably an empty one. If
not empty, then at least zeroed out on the intake volume.
• Is there a 3000-ml or 1000-ml bag of whichever fluid we'll need?
Note to self: Make sure the tubing is clamped off before spiking an irri-
gation bag. Last thing I need is a shower because the scrub left the tub-
ings un-clamped.
List No. 2? After I've brought the patient in the room, I doublecheck
List No. 1 to ensure some well-meaning team member didn't deliber-
ately move an item or change a setting.
I guess you can say I've always felt at home in the Main OR. I've
never had trouble telling a family member not to snap pre-op photos
of my patient in a flimsy gown or telling a resident not to slingshot his