Paula Watkins, RN, CNOR
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
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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.
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