I'm so tierd of SCRUB nurses

[Mbeas]

I'm hoping to one day match at a competetive surg tech program. Can you give me any tips?
Did you pursue a fellowship? Did you consider research?
I really like to shoot for the stars.

CST here.

You don't "match" at a surg tech program. Most of them are at community colleges and all you have to do is pay your money. You are obviously talking about becoming a surgeon, in which case you shouldn't be confusing the terms.

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[eeyoreish]

CST here.

You don't "match" at a surg tech program. Most of them are at community colleges and all you have to do is pay your money. You are obviously talking about becoming a surgeon, in which case you shouldn't be confusing the terms.

Wow guys. He was being sarcastic. He was poking fun at the entitlement given how easy it is to become a tech.

 

[Top Gun]

Wow guys. He was being sarcastic. He was poking fun at the entitlement given how easy it is to become a tech.

I know. I wondered when someone would pick up on the sarcasm.

 

[Mbeas]

Wow guys. He was being sarcastic. He was poking fun at the entitlement given how easy it is to become a tech.

My bad.

 

[ArcGurren]

I know. I wondered when someone would pick up on the sarcasm.

It's the internet and sometimes doesn't transmit all that well

 

[katarina90]

Let me preface this post with the following: I have respect for everyone and am sympathetic to the plight of med students in the OR.

I've been a nurse for 3.5 years and have worked with some of the top cardiac, transplant, and trauma surgeons in the nation so I'll try to help you out.

If you want to get in good with the staff in the room, do the following:

1. Come in to the room and introduce yourself -this goes a long way
2. Ask if you can help position, prep, etc. -again, this goes a long way (this is also good to know if you want to do Sx)
3. If you are scrubbing go pull your gloves and ask if they need a gown for you.
- Typically the only person I pull gloves for is the attending. If I know who the fellow and/or residents will be (and know their gloves) I will pull them as well. Other than that I have no clue who will be scrubbed and what their gloves are. Pulling your gloves is common courtesy.

4. Don't touch the mayo or anything on it.


As far as counts, per JCAHO you must counts even with lap cases. I don't like it but I make sure counts are correct, and if they are not a simple xray covers it.

Extra instruments are an incorrect count, because that means the initial was incorrect so there is no telling if you are only +1 or you were +2 and are now missing 1.

Even with procurements the counts must be correct. A retained instrument in a dead person can (and has) brought about lawsuits. Stupid? Probably, but that's the way it is.

I'll bend over backwards to help a med student, but when your in a room with attendings, fellows, residents, and interns you priority is very low. And if you are a prick it gets even worse. Attendings who have good rapport with their scrubs will side with the scrub in a heartbeat over a student. The student will be gone in a month, while some of these teams have been together for 20+ years.

But yeah I've worked with my fair share of grumpy nurses who suck out loud. It is a large reason I'm going back to school, but when I start doing surgery rotations I guarantee you I will follow my own advice. I enjoy these stories and laugh at them too.

Thanks for this post. I think it contains a lot of good advice. I've gotten through my required surg rotations (thank goodness, as I am most definitely NOT a surg person) and I agree being nice (or at least polite and courteous) goes a long way. Staying before and after the surgeon leaves to help out is a big one imo. Sometimes they really can use an extra pair of hands, especially when transporting from the gurney to the OR table.

However there's some people you'll never win over, no matter how nice you are, it's something you just realize and have to "get over". I've always had good experiences with the scrub techs, very hit or miss with the OR nurses. There was one hospital in particular where all the OR nurses seemed to have an "agenda" against students, to the point where one yelled at me over something totally minute and unnecessary that did nothing to put the patient or the sterile field at risk. One of the scrub techs later told me that they "always do that to students". Everyone else at my school who rotated at this particular place had the same experience. I never fought back (I know it sounds spineless, but as students we really don't have any clout to do anything about it--obviously it's not fair, but fighting back or throwing a tantrum in my opinion would only make things much worse).

I got yelled at a lot, sometimes justified, many times not--but tried to learn from all the criticisms and not do the same mistake again. Also tried to figure out who would be nice enough to get to know me and be on my side, so to speak. There was a scrub tech transferring to ortho who was new, and I tried to help her out whenever possible by pulling gloves and stuff for other people on the team (the PA, the doc) and helping drape, hold limbs for prepping, hand tools to the surgeon if she was preoccupied, etc. In return, she was very helpful and sweet to me, and it just felt better that in that crazy OR environment that I had somebody on my side.

To this day I still dunno what makes some OR nurses behave so angrily towards students. I'm sure there's a lot of theories (Is it learned behavior? Are they going through menopause? Are they displacing their frustration with mean surgeons on the only person in a white coat they can get away with screaming at? Or, am I just inherently a screwup in the OR?)...but at the end of the day, I just went along with it. And I still got my "honors" at the end.

 

[Mbeas]

To this day I still dunno what makes some OR nurses behave so angrily towards students. I'm sure there's a lot of theories (Is it learned behavior? Are they going through menopause? Are they displacing their frustration with mean surgeons on the only person in a white coat they can get away with screaming at? Or, am I just inherently a screwup in the OR?)...but at the end of the day, I just went along with it. And I still got my "honors" at the end.

They're very territorial. They don't like people encroaching on their land and to be honest, I think a lot of them do it to establish power. They presume that you have never been in an operating room and that you have no idea what a sterile field is. When training to be a surg tech (or circulator), you are taught a lot about the sterile field and how to protect it. When someone even remotely compromises this field, you can rest assured that the circulator or surg tech will be on you like white on rice.

And it makes sense: when the surgeon is focused on the patient, someone has to keep their eyes on the external environment to be sure it doesn't get contaminated. I guess as a former surg tech I have a sweet spot for a lot of these people.

 

[cpants]

I will say the thing they do that annoys me most is putting pressure on junior residents/medical students to close faster. They can roll their eyes as much as they want, but if they make comments I usually tell them to go screw. Same for anesthesia.

 

[ArcGurren]

I will say the thing they do that annoys me most is putting pressure on junior residents/medical students to close faster. They can roll their eyes as much as they want, but if they make comments I usually tell them to go screw. Same for anesthesia.

Clearly we're impinging too much on their five breaks a day

 

[Top Gun]

I will say the thing they do that annoys me most is putting pressure on junior residents/medical students to close faster. They can roll their eyes as much as they want, but if they make comments I usually tell them to go screw. Same for anesthesia.

Maybe you should ask them if they'd like to take over closing, since they think they can do a faster and better job.