Surgical Technician Quotes

I know. I think they probably just want to see you performing the full load of a chief. It’s because they like you. Seriously.” I realized it was true: For the past few months, I had been acting merely as a surgical technician. I had been using cancer as an excuse not to take full responsibility for my patients. On the other hand, it was a good excuse, damn it. But now I started coming in earlier, staying later, fully caring for the patients again, adding another four hours to a twelve-hour day. It put the patients back in the center of my mind at all times. The first two days I thought I would have to quit, battling waves of nausea, pain, and fatigue, retreating to an unused bed in down moments to sleep. But by the third day, I had begun to enjoy it again, despite the wreck of my body. Reconnecting with patients brought back the meaning of this work. I took antiemetics and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) between cases and just before rounds. I was suffering, but I was fully back. Instead of finding an unused bed, I started resting on the junior residents’ couch, supervising them on the care of my patients, lecturing as I rode a wave of back spasms. The more tortured my body became, the more I relished having done the work. At the end of the first week, I slept for forty hours straight. But I was calling the shots:

The circulating nurse. This is a Registered Nurse who has been trained to work in the operating room. The circulator helps get the room ready, deals directly with the patient before surgery, positions and preps the patient, helps the anesthesiologist during induction, performs the surgical count with the scrub, and gets supplies during the case. The circulator also has to chart everything that happens during the case and all supplies used. This is done on computer, on standardized forms that are lengthy and considered legal documents. Many OR nurses scrub too, but it’s cheaper for hospitals to use one tech and one nurse as a team, rather than two nurses. The Anesthesiologist, and/ or Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. The Primary Surgeon, who may bring an Assisting Surgeon or Resident, or a Physician's Assistant, or a Registered Nurse First Assistant, or a First Assistant who is usually a Certified Surgical First Assistant. Anesthesia Technician, to get supplies ready and support the anesthesiologist. Equipment tech. Some hospitals have a designated person to help with the complicated tables, beds, microscopes, etc.