OR

My first day of real clinical at IMC was spent in the OR and I loved it. I decided to compile a quick list of all the helpful things I learned today:

1. Wearing comfortable shoes is ESSENTIAL. You're on your feet a lot.


2. Spattering blood all over the place is not an abnormality, especially in orthopedic surgery. Come prepared-wear goggles!


3. If you're a student nurse, prepare to be teased/badgered/set up on dates with sons of surgeons. Did I mention teased?


4. Nothing in clinical practice looks like what you saw on your student nursing videos. There is a huge contrast between the magical land of perfectness that is the NLC and reality.


5. When putting on sterile gloves, DON'T CONTAMINATE THEM, then you will need to do it two more times to get it right and cost the hospital money.


6. Patients that are under general anesthesia are incredibly pleasant people to work with.


7. Try not to drink too much water before you go into surgery because then you will have to pee about an hour in and still have 2-3 hours left to go. Not fun.


8. Orthopedic Surgery is essentially Wood Shop 101 for doctors.


9. When inserting a Foley catheter, it's not nice to spray it on the nurse assisting you with the procedure. You will look incredibly stupid and probably get teased incessantly after everyone else in the OR gets done laughing. Especially after you already sprayed iodine all over the feet of the head nurse. Great.


10. People who work in the OR have the most comfortable work attire ever; by itself, it's reason enough to go into the OR field. Because you're in a cap/mask/goggles all day, nobody would even know if you weren't wearing makeup!