In December, I served on a medical mission trip to Honduras. I had the privilege of working alongside world-class surgeons and surgical teams from across the country. It was my first time traveling overseas on my own, it was my first time serving on a medical mission trip, and it was an incredible, humbling experience.… Read More Day 1 in the OR: Finding Perspective in a Chaotic Case
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… Read More 12 Reasons Why I Love the Operating Room
I have some exciting news to share with you!🤩 I have been approved to serve on a surgical mission trip to Honduras through One World Surgery! I firmly believe in giving back, and the longer that I have worked in the operating room, the more I have felt called to give back by participating in… Read More Surgery with a Purpose: Bringing Healing and Hope to Honduras
I’m frustrated with the sterile processing department (SPD). I know what you’re thinking, and no, I’m not going to start bashing the department. Sure, errors are irritating. I’ve dealt with my fair share of holes in wraps, missing indicators, and even found a computer mouse in a tray once. So I understand how frustrating errors… Read More Change What You See in SPD
To tell you how The Circulating Life began, I have to go back to my first day in the operating room. It was November 7th, 2011, and I can remember it vividly. Although I considered myself an “experienced” nurse, I was not prepared for how different the operating room environment was from the bedside and… Read More Back to the Beginning: How The Circulating Life Got Started
New grads have been on my mind lately. Maybe because it’s spring semester and I know classes across the country will be graduating soon. Maybe it’s the staffing shortage, or because I recently gave a lecture to a group of nursing students. Or maybe it’s a weird mixture of all of these things, but regardless,… Read More New Grads in the OR
I’ve struggled to write this post – mostly because I know just how hard it is to work in the operating room, and I know how burdensome it can be to have to implement a new policy or checklist every other week. Oftentimes our policies and procedures read like the person who wrote them has… Read More What Happens When No One Is Watching?
Can you believe that 2021 is almost over? The continued stress and strain of the pandemic, increased workloads and case volumes, staffing shortages, vaccine mandates, and political frenzy all seem to have come together to make the year just fly quickly by. Although I know we’ve all felt every grueling hour during the extra longs… Read More CNOR Recertification + 5 Free Resources for Continuing Education and Points
In the operating room, we use the phrase “patient safety” an awful lot – for good reason, too. Everything we do hinges on providing our patients with a safe surgical experience. We confirm their identity, surgical site, and laterality multiple times before rolling back, we position them for their procedures in ways least likely to… Read More Effective Communication: The Foundation of Patient Safety
When I first started in the operating room, I had heard of surgical techs, but I didn’t know what their job actually involved. But, it only took me about 2 seconds to realize that scrub techs were a wealth of knowledge and experience, and if I was going to succeed in the OR, I was… Read More Happy Scrub Tech Week! +Giveaway!