If you’ve worked in an O.R. for more than ten minutes, you know that everything’s not always coming up roses. Sometimes, it’s all you can do not to cry your eyes out when a co-worker asks you how things are going in your room. Some days you lose your mind when you’re told you can’t leave early (*ahem* me…on Monday), and some days you don’t get lunch until you clock out and buy it on your way home. And we’ve all had those days where we stagger to the time clock, just thankful that we’re still alive at the end of our shift. 

You can work in the best O.R. in the country, and sometimes, everything is just going to fall apart:

• You can’t make anyone happy.
  • Every time your surgeon scrubs in he’s yelling about something that isn’t right, even though you’ve already fixed what he yelled about the last case, now it needs to be fixed again – because now he’s decided he “always” does it this way…ugh!
  • You said something as a joke that offended your scrub or circulator, and now the person you’re supposed to be working with for the next 12 hours isn’t speaking to you.
• Nothing is straightforward.
  • Your I&D turns into a total knee revision and halfway through the case you’re opening 15 more trays while still juggling everything else going on in the room.
  • You’re told before the case “exactly” what will be needed, only to be running halfway through the case for the exact things they said they wouldn’t need.
• You’re short staffed.
  • You show up to work and 6 people have called in, there’s no extra help, and you’re left wondering if you’ll even get a bathroom break later in the day, much less an actual lunch break.
  • Get off on time? Tell me what that’s like…

• Or tragically, your patient dies. Despite the monumental effort that everyone put in to save them, it just wasn’t meant to be. And recovering from that, immediately moving on to your next patient, and giving them all of the care that they need is just really, really hard.

I get it. Some days are a struggle.

Working in the the O.R. is no easy task. It takes commitment, dedication, and some days, pure endurance to make it through the day. We get yelled at. Sometimes we don’t get bathroom breaks or meal breaks. We get stuck past our shift because there’s no one to relieve us, yet we can’t just walk out and leave our patients on the table. And when we do finally leave, if we’re on call, we could be headed back at 2 AM to cover an emergency case.

When it’s just been “one of those days” we’re ready to throw in the towel and walk away. It’s not worth it. We can’t do it. Besides, what’s the point, anyway?

Yet, we keep coming back…

Why? Why do we keep coming back to a job that oftentimes leaves us feeling so beat up?

Because for many of us, the O.R. is more than just a job.

Yes, the bad days leave us feeling exhausted, angry, and worn out. But, thankfully, every day isn’t a bad day. And, those good days, the days where we really feel like we make a difference, can help get us through the times when we just want to walk away from it all:

• You roll your patient into recovery knowing that her entire tumor was removed, her margins are clear, and she’s expected to make a full recovery.
• The football player with the torn ACL has a successful, uneventful surgery and won’t be out of the game forever.
• An angel heart arrives at just the right time to save a little boy who desperately needs a heart transplant – and you get to be a part of that life-saving, life-changing event.
• An older nurse who remembers what it’s like to be a new mom offers to take your call on Mother’s Day so that you can spend the day with your family.
• The friendships that you’ve forged through the long days, hard cases, and stressful emergencies run deep. These people are definitely your kind of people and you love them.

We’re passionate about what we do. We know that each and every day we are making a difference in the lives of our patients. From the time we roll a patient into surgery until the time we leave them in the hands of the recovery room nurses, we are their voice. We are their advocate. And being there to help get them safely through the surgical process is what we do best. It’s why we do what we do. And we do it really, really well.

I hope you are encouraged today. You can do this 😊

Melanie