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Supply Savings - May 2013 edition of Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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OSE_1305_part3_Layout 1 5/1/13 9:34 AM Page 132 BEHIND CLOSED DOORS Paula Watkins, RN, CNOR The Toughest Job You'll Ever Loathe Love Hard lessons learned on my latest 13-week assignment. Last month I completed the toughest assignment I've worked in my 8 years as a travel nurse. Not the worst, but definitely the toughest. My first night, I wasn't sure I'd return for the next. But I did. For 13 weeks, I wondered if my sanity would outlive my contract. Here's some of what I learned. • No good staffing deed goes unpunished. Just because a hospital has dozens of ORs doesn't mean you'll rarely have to take call, or that being on second call lessens your chance of having to go in. Even if you take your assigned amount of call, plus a night or 2 to help out when someone quits, you'll still get called to plug holes in the schedule. • Room for one more? In a single OR, you can fit 1 attending surgeon, 4 resident assistants, 1 med student, 2 observing surgeons, 2 circulators, 2 anesthesia providers, 1 scrub tech, 4 obstetric RNs, 1 general RN and 1 tech. Oh, and a patient. • Bow before the blood bank. The human body holds around 12 units, or pints, of blood. It's possible to give a patient 65 units of whole blood by standard transfusion, 8 units of fresh frozen plasma, 6 units of platelets and 6,000mL of cell-saver blood in 2 hours. And the blood bank is able to supply these products without flinching. • Believe in the back order. A hospital can run out of propofol, bupivacaine and papaverine, and operate under rations and the promise of

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