Happy Perioperative Nurses Week! I hope that you are having a great week, and that your facility actually remembered to celebrate you this week! 😉 I’ve been an OR nurse for 12 years, and I absolutely love working in the OR. Since we’re celebrating this week, here are 12 reasons why I love working in the operating room. Also, I made this list into a reel, so if you’d rather watch it without the commentary, check out Facebook and Instagram!

#1 – Scrub Caps

Scrub caps serve a valid purpose in the operating room, for sure. But they’re also SO convenient! If I had to fix my hair every morning before work, I’d really just have to rethink being employed 😅

#2 – Hospital Provided Scrubs

This one is kinda like #1 – it’s very important that our scrubs are clean and we aren’t carrying anything home on our clothes to our families. But it’s also nice to not have to think about what you’re going to wear! I come rolling into work in whatever I can throw on in the morning – and it’s glorious. By the time I’m in scrubs and my scrub cap is on, I look as professional as everybody else.

#3 – Propofol

We all know why, right? I came to the OR after working in Med-Surg, and while I did *periodically* have a wonderful, sweet, polite patient, more often than not they were demanding and rude. So it’s a nice change of pace to have patients that are asleep. I’m still committed to providing the best patient care that I can, I’m just free to do it without verbal abuse from the patient.

#4 – Case Variety

Do you ever think about just how cool it is to work in the OR? We get to see and do SO MUCH! I’m amazed every single day at what we can accomplish during surgery.

#5 – Scrubbing

I wasn’t taught to scrub when I started in the operating room. I was trained only to circulate. However, the longer I was in the OR, and as I moved up in leadership, it really became necessary for me to know at least the basics of scrubbing. How could I give a break to our scrub techs and scrub nurses if I didn’t know how to set up a back table, pass instruments, or help close? So, I set about learning to scrub and there were some wonderfully patient scrub techs who helped me learn! Now, I really enjoy getting the opportunity to be scrubbed in. When you’re right in the middle of the sterile field, getting to see what’s going on up close, it’s incredible. I still enjoy circulating, but scrubbing definitely gives you a more in-depth look at what’s going on with your patient during the procedure.

#6 – No Call Lights

This goes back to my Med-Surg days as well. Answering call lights consumes your shift most days, and it can be exhausting. I definitely appreciate that there aren’t call lights in the OR! Now, are there pagers, and cell phones to answer, and everything else? Sure. But we’re talking about what I love about the OR, and I love that I don’t have to answer call lights 😅

#7 – The Waiting Room

This is yet another holdover from the trauma of working Med-Surg. Just like we can have wonderful patients, they can also have super sweet and kind family members who are with them. But, for every nice family interaction, I feel like I had about ten negative ones. Families are worried and concerned for their loved one, I understand that, but oftentimes their worry and concern gets taken out on the healthcare provider they see the most – their nurse. So having families in the waiting room during surgery is a breath of fresh air for me.

#8 – 1:1 Patient Ratios

I feel like all of the negatives from Med-Surg are really coming out in the reasons why I love the OR! But hey, it’s all about keeping it in perspective, and remembering the days that I had 9, 10, or 11 patients at one time is enough to make me never want to leave the operating room.

#9 – The Music!

Where else is it expected that the music will be playing for your entire shift? I know, we don’t always get to pick the station, and we get treated like DJ is in our job description, but the music still helps contribute to a fun environment. Unless it’s smooth jazz…. who does that to their OR team??

#10 – Specialization

While the OR is it’s own unique nursing specialty, we can also take it a step further and specialize in a certain surgical specialty. (How many times can you use specialty in one sentence?) For me, Orthopedics is my absolute favorite specialty – that includes Sports, Total Joints, Hands, Spine, Ortho Trauma, and even Foot & Ankle. Foot and Ankle isn’t in the top of the list for me, but it’s still in Ortho! I think it’s great that we have the opportunity to really become experts in different areas. And I’m super thankful that there are other OR nurses out there who love the specialties I like to avoid, like GYN and ENT ❤️

#11 – Fast-Paced Environment

This can be a positive and a negative, but I I enjoy the hectic environment most days. We’re always on the go, we never have time to get bored, and before you know it, the shift is over and it’s time to go home.

#12 – It’s Better Than Med-Surg!

If you haven’t picked up on it yet, my perception of the OR is seen through the lens of what is was like to work on the floor. I live by the mantra that says, “A bad day in the OR is still better than a good day in Med-Surg.” And I believe it! Remembering where I’ve worked before and what I experienced helps get me through the rough days and keeps everything in perspective for me.

These are the 12 reasons why I love working in the operating room – but what about you? What really stands out to you about the OR? I’d love to hear it!

Happy Perioperative Nurses Week!

I hope you know just how important your role as an OR Nurse is! Thank you for showing up, day in and day out, even when the days are hard. Thank you for your commitment to patient care and patient safety, for your dedication to our profession, and for taking on the challenge of mastering this crazy specialty that we all love. I’m so thankful for you! ❤️

Until next time,

Melanie

P.S. I don’t blog over here as frequently, but I’m still writing! You can find me on here on the First Case blog 😊