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BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
Paula Watkins, RN, CNOR
If You Weren't an OR Nurse ...
What would we do if we didn't work in surgery?
I
don't think I'm alone in wondering some days whether I was crazy
to choose OR nursing as a career. But what else would we do?
Hey, there are plenty of transferable skills that could get us a foot
in the door of other occupations.
• Accountant. The counting and totaling never stops in the OR.
Needles, blades, instruments, sponges, hypos, reels, clip cartridges,
red loops, blue loops. And it'll all balance at the end of the day. No
fudging the numbers here.
• Teacher. All day, every day and every hour, we educate those who
walk into our domain. Haven't any of you outsiders heard of sterile
technique?
• IT engineer. I may not be able to figure out how to connect the DVD
player to the television, but I'm working with high-tech electronics in
the OR. The downside: I have to get on my hands and knees to reach
the cables. The upside: It's actually a lot of fun to ask people "Is it
plugged in?" and then tell them to "Turn it off. Now turn it on again."
• Secretary. There's paperwork to do, even when you're charting electronically. You're answering the phones for surgeons, assisting surgeons,
residents, PAs, personal scrub nurses and even scrub techs. Plus, recovery has called 3 times to ask how much longer the case will be. Maybe I
should also list psychic.
• Carpenter. One word: orthopedics. There are mallets, drill bits 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 | F E B R U A R Y 2013
