staff lounge was filled with a heavy yellow haze. It was nothing for a
scrub nurse to run into the lounge to quickly "hot box" a cigarette
with her bloody gloves still on.
• Corrections. While I was learning to scrub and assist, it was per-
fectly acceptable for surgeons to correct you by rapping your knuck-
les with an instrument or a hand, or by screaming at you in dangerous
decibels. A surgeon once reached across the patient, grabbed my
upper arms, shook me and yelled, "If this patient dies, it will be all
your fault." He responded to the tears welling up in my eyes with,
"And don't get your tears in my sterile field." Thankfully, we don't tol-
erate such boorish behavior today.
• Charting by hand. Remember charting implants and putting sticker
labels in 4 different places? And all those logs and binders? I'm not sure
how much things have really changed, though. If you're charting elec-
tronically, wouldn't you think putting implant information in the
patient's EMR would populate all the other places you need to docu-
ment the implant?
• Nurses teaching the new grads the ropes. And sometimes hang-
ing them with those ropes. Once while I was setting up for a D&C, a
nurse dressed me down like I was an errant child. To this day, even
though it's as easy as pie, I can set up for a D&C surgery with my eyes
closed. The teachers of the OR in the good ol' days taught you with
blind conviction. And until you proved yourself to her and all the
other members of the old guard, your place in the OR wasn't secure.
Good ol' days?
We've come a long way, that's for sure. I'm just not certain how much
progress we've made.
OSM
Ms. Watkins (pwatkins12@comcast.net) has proudly been an OR nurse
since 1979.
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