Vacation is over, OR stuff defined

The nagging Blackberry started before I even got up. Since my alarm was set for 0500 it was early. Census alert, which to the OR person means that this may be another day of challenges without enough post op beds when they are needed. This is probably only meaningful to an OR person. Most people believe that when you have surgery there is automatically a bed waiting for you. This may or may not be true, like hotels hospital beds are assigned as they become avaialble (or in the hotel business as they are cleaned). Unlike the hotel business not all customers move along according to plan. People may remain sick, get sicker, or in the case of a Trauma center more new patients arrive before beds are cleared.

On days like this the OR desk person becomes an orchestra conductor, directing the patients to PACU and Out Patient recovery timing the comings and goings like the blending of the sounds in a symphony.

The instruments consist of nurses, surgical techinicans, operating room assistants, anesthesia providers, surgeons, residents, medical students, radiology technicians, pathology staff, perfusionionists and a myraid of others that are needed to make the world of surgery sing.

The challenges are met, the patients are recovered and the OR prepares for another day.

In the coming editions of the blog, there will be more descriptives on the OR world before i really begin the story telling, because for myself and my own sense of logic the definitions and boundaries need to at least be discussed.

Life caring for people is a gift and delivering the gift in the OR world is not always easy. When I was a staff nurse and simple participated in the surgeries life was easier. I had one room, one surgeon and one team to deal with a patient. Now I am in management and I have many times that number of rooms, teams and patients per day. Life has become more complex, more like a 1000 piece puzzle where the picture rotates so the pieces continually changes places. Or perhaps an old fashioned kaleidoscope where the center is constant and the edges change on a whim.

The patient is the center of all, and that DOES not change.

The challenges of this chosen life are many, the rewards great, and the days where the difference between them is hard to discern. This will become a later discussion