Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

Say Yes to Total Hips - March 2014 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

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

Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/272944

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 145 of 146

Paula Watkins, RN, CNOR BEHIND CLOSED DOORS 1 4 6 O U T P AT 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 | M A R C H 2 0 1 4 Traveler in a Tundra State And you thought your ORs were cold? B y the time you read this column, the weather might have turned, there could be balm and breeze in the air, we may finally have dug out from the worst that winter had to offer. Either that or the snow will have buried us once and for all. I am in Connecticut, but as of this writing it looks more like Antarctica. In my 8 years as a traveling nurse, I don't think I've ever experienced so many single-digit temperature days. If nothing else, I've learned a couple of things this winter about being a nurse in the Year of the Polar Bear. • You have to arrive at work at least 10 minutes earlier, to allow time to take off all your multiple layers of clothes, before you can change into scrubs. • Everything is relative. Last summer you complained about being too hot when you had to wear a scrub jacket on the job. Now you hope you get in early enough to snag a second one, both of them buttoned up to your neck. • You don't have to set your alarm clock to make sure you're up in the morning. The snowplows coming down the street outside will take care of that. (Also, they're louder and 15 minutes earlier than your alarm.) • For the first time since, oh, never, the OR isn't the coldest place on earth. • You seriously consid- er keeping 1 of the 2 blankets you just pulled out of the warmer. Normothermia isn't just for patients any- more. • You're doing Internet Paula is from Little Rock, Ark. She doesn't own a shovel. All this snow and cold weather is just a pain in the frozen tuchus. OSE_1403_part3_Layout 1 3/5/14 10:36 AM Page 146

Articles in this issue

view archives of Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers - Say Yes to Total Hips - March 2014 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine