PeriOperative nurses

These nurses are the ones you normally see in a typical TV show or a movie in a hospital. PeriOperative Nurses are registered nurses who assist surgeons during surgery. PeriOperative Nurses can work as either a Scrub Nurse, who passes instruments to the surgeon or as a Circulating Nurse who take care of the overall nursing care during surgery. PeriOperative Nurses can choose to specialize in certain fields of medicine such as Cardiac Care or Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.  PeriOperative Nurses are also responsible for providing preoperative and postoperative care to the patient.

The main duties of a PeriOperative Nurse include:

• Assisting the surgeon during surgery.
• Providing care to the patient during surgery.
• Monitoring the patients vital signs.
• Controlling bleeding during surgery.
• Along with taking care of the patient intra operatively, they also provide pre and post operative care.
• Maintaining a sterile environment in the operating room.

Qualifications: PeriOperative Nurses need to first qualify as a Registered Nurse (RN) by successfully completing a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Nursing (BSN) course or relevant Associate Degree or Diploma. 

Salary: $64-69,900

My Internship

Here's a quick update on my internship

About a month and a half ago, I switched out of pediatrician work to family practice. Family practice sees a ages from 18 and up. In my case I see a lot of older folk from ages 50-90. I am very happy I made this decision because I was very unhappy shadowing the medical assistant. It was a very unwelcoming vibe and lots of drama in the back office. 

I now shadow pretty much everyone. If anyone has something interesting, they take me to see the patient and I learn something new every time. 

So far I got to do a patients strep throat test by myself. Since I've seen a few strep throat test in the peds office, I knew what to do. Luckily the patient was negative.

One of the doctors told me I'll be doing my first suture procedure. A suture procedure is the removal of stitches. The man that came in had his stitches done a month prior. About 2 weeks before he come in, he went to the ocean with his wound. It became infected but wasn't in any way serious. I had to remove the stitches in the infected area which went pleasantly well. 

The main medical assistant I'm shadowing now had me do a stool test to see if there was any blood indicated in the stool. Yes it was gross. Yes it smelt horrible. But it was an awesome learning experience. 

I even had a scary experience in some way. This man came in with some mental problems but we were not sure. When it comes to serious mental problems, I am not aloud to see the patient for protective reasons. I was aloud to come in and see the patient anyway because he was new and the nurses were not sure what kind of issues he had. He took Depakote which I am familiar of. I learned he needed to come in every 4 weeks ( once a month) for a shot that was to keep him from having major tantrums. Not a 2 year old tantrum but a serious tantrum that can be risky for anyone. He seemed fine but it was still a scary situation for all of us. 


The last thing that I wanted to talk about was me witnessing an EKG. An EKG is also called an electrocardiogram which tests the electrical activity in your heart. Talking to the man who went through this was sweet and kept assuming I was a college student which was a compliment. He was going in for surgery soon and he was in for a pre surgery type appointment to make sure he's in good condition for surgery (I'm sure it's called an PPO.)

I have learned so much more and experienced amazing stuff. I look forward to going there every time.