Why Nurses Rock
A day in my life
That a surgeon can free long-clamped-off nerves, fuse vertebrae together, and button the whole thing up with a couple of titanium rods, all through a 2-inch slit in your back, is remarkable (and much appreciated).
But it’s the nurses who run the show.
Intake:
Competent, respectful, Mondays suck. With the articles I’ve written or edited about nurse burnout lately, I suspect my pre-op nurse has it. She complains of the waste involved in the process of getting an IV established. I concur. We are resigned to the situation.
She says that Dr. Hallamandares is “very good at what he does.” I don’t know how she knows this, but it is good to hear.
Transfer to OR:
The anesthesiologist introduces himself and says he’ll take good care of me. I never see him again.
An OR nurse wearing a floral-colored surgical cap and sunny disposition (for a dreary Monday morning) greets me and tells me the crew is ready. Off I go. I kiss Jayne goodbye. “I’m going under the knife,” I say. It appears everyone present has heard that before.
OR:
Man, it’s cold in here! It’s a beehive of activity. People in surgical gowns work urgently along a far wall, as if preparing for something…
