Be Empathetic. Always.
When I ask you to describe a surgeon, what personality traits come up? Cocky, arrogant, abrasive? We’ve heard of those stories where the surgeon lost his cool, threw something, or made someone cry. Certainly, working with surgeons is not for the faint of heart. I would say that being a nurse is certainly not for the faint of heart. Calling a surgeon at 3 in the morning must take a lot of courage, if not sheer determination for patient advocacy when your patient is crying out from pain.
Perioperative nursing is different. In this case, you are the only one keeping the surgeon from operating. For better or for worse, your relationship with each one (level of difficulty increasing when your university hospital has upwards of 8 surgeons in charge of one procedure with varying degrees of superiority), creates the mood of the room.
We already discussed how the mood of the room can change, starting with the patient’s mood. And we will discuss how team work with your perioperative team - your scrub tech and anesthesia provider - can greatly effect the other relationships and mood of the room. But your ability to work with your surgeon can make or break a perioperative nurse.
You must be able to put your own feelings aside and advocate for your patient. Perhaps the surgeon is new or doesn’t remember each hospital policy. Some surgeons juggle five different badges, each with its own set of scrubs, policies, procedures, and personalities of the different hospitals they belong to.
How exhausting. Nurses might not know who their charge nurse is, who their cubby buddy is, who their tech is, who their patients will be. Each day, potentially each hour, is a new group of people and personalities to jive with. How exhausting. Now times that by five different hospitals. Oh, and the pagers for each of those five hospitals all the time for those 12 or 24 hours. All the time.
Now who’s exhausted?
Be empathetic to your surgeons. But be assertive for your patients. And don’t forget to be a good manager of time and resources. Oh and also take care of yourself, mentally and physically, so we don’t burn you out.
You didn’t realize just what you signed up for when you got your nursing degree, but it will be the most rewarding decision you make.
Perioperative nursing is different. In this case, you are the only one keeping the surgeon from operating. For better or for worse, your relationship with each one (level of difficulty increasing when your university hospital has upwards of 8 surgeons in charge of one procedure with varying degrees of superiority), creates the mood of the room.
We already discussed how the mood of the room can change, starting with the patient’s mood. And we will discuss how team work with your perioperative team - your scrub tech and anesthesia provider - can greatly effect the other relationships and mood of the room. But your ability to work with your surgeon can make or break a perioperative nurse.
You must be able to put your own feelings aside and advocate for your patient. Perhaps the surgeon is new or doesn’t remember each hospital policy. Some surgeons juggle five different badges, each with its own set of scrubs, policies, procedures, and personalities of the different hospitals they belong to.
How exhausting. Nurses might not know who their charge nurse is, who their cubby buddy is, who their tech is, who their patients will be. Each day, potentially each hour, is a new group of people and personalities to jive with. How exhausting. Now times that by five different hospitals. Oh, and the pagers for each of those five hospitals all the time for those 12 or 24 hours. All the time.
Now who’s exhausted?
Be empathetic to your surgeons. But be assertive for your patients. And don’t forget to be a good manager of time and resources. Oh and also take care of yourself, mentally and physically, so we don’t burn you out.
You didn’t realize just what you signed up for when you got your nursing degree, but it will be the most rewarding decision you make.
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