Surgical Nursing requires a special person to meet the demands of the precision this task calls for. It is a fine-tuned art that requires keen senses to have the ability to multitask with precise perfection to ensure the patient will be afforded the utmost care, comfort, safety, teamwork among staff, and confidence they should expect in a situation that does not exhibit the best of times in their life. In this paper, we will inform the reader of the meticulous role of the surgical nurse, salary range and job availability, pros and cons, and how the patient takes number one priority in order for them to receive the best care possible within the Surgical Nurse’s scope of practice.
Role and Job Responsibilities
Medical surgical nursing is the framework for all nursing practice. Prior to modern day nursing, almost all nurses were medical or surgical; that is where all nurses started. Medical surgical nursing, once an entry-level position, has evolved to a specific specialty. Rather than a stepping-stone, medical surgical nurses are the backbone to most all institutions. These nurses specialize in the care of patients with surgical or non-surgical conditions. This group of healthcare providers accounts for one of the largest and in most demand. As a medical nurse, you will have a very complex job. You work as an advocate and health educator for your patient. That could mean managing as many as five to seven patients at a time. Medical surgical nursing is not the easiest but many find it very rewarding and find satisfaction, that no two days are ever alike.
As a medical surgical nurse you work with your patients before, during, and after surgery. Before surgery you want to explain the procedure to them and help prepare...
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...gether so the nurse is able to be the best provider the patient has.
Conclusion
The scope of practice for the Surgical Nurse is not for just anybody. In order to better serve the patient, the employer, and the nurse him/herself, the nurse should fully understand the demands this role has and make an informed decision. With this paper, we were able to show the reader what it takes to be a Surgical Nurse, the demands this role has, salary range and job availability, pros and cons, and why the patient must take number one priority. The research we have provided is just the doorway opened to the future for nurses looking for a potential specialty in this practice. There are many roles a nurse can fulfill so the best advice we can offer is to do personal research in the role of interest and always make a well rounded, informed decision.
The phenomenon of interest has been identified as the expressions of caring by nurses on acute care general surgical wards (Enns, C., Gregory, D., 2007). This problem statement was addressed promptly and clearly in the article. The caring research that has been obtained in other studies has yielded inconsistent results due to the varying definitions of caring. Numerous research has been done on the phenomenon of caring by nurses specializing in several areas but the population of surgical nurses has been “relatively neglected in caring research” (Enns, 2007). Caring is a phenomenon that has been universal throughout nursing, it is a trend that will forever be current due to the ever changing scope of nursing. Increasing demands on nursing staff and the acuity of the patients causes stressors to the “surgical ward environment (and) affect nurses’ ability to provide ideal care” (Enns, 2007). The aim of this report is to answer the question “What are the expressions of caring from a surgical nurses’ perspective?” (Enns, 2007). An appropriate qualitative study has been chosen because “...
Ignatavicius, D.D. & Workman, M.L.(2010). Medical-Surgical Nursing: Patient-Centered Collaborative Care. (6th ed.). St. Philadelphia PA: Saunders Elsevier
Ignatavicius, D. D., & Workman, M. L. (2013). Care of Intraoperative Patients. Medical-surgical nursing: patient-centered collaborative care (7th ed.). St. Louis: Elsevier.
The idea of taking care of someone and providing assistance to a complete stranger is something not many people do. Seeing people at their worst, during a difficult, challenging and frightening moment of their life is not a job many people would take. However, being there for a person at their time of need is what captivates me the most. Nursing, a career I want to pursue and one that is on my to-do list. Being a nurse entails a lot of things; you must be strong, passionate, hardworking, and caring. Becoming a nurse is my ultimate career goal. In the long term a clear-cut decision would be to further continue my education and become an Nurse Anesthetist with a Master's degree.
Everyday life in a hospital is complete and absolute chaos. There are doctors and nurses running everywhere to treat patients, ambulances coming through every so often, children and patients crying, and surgeons telling a family that their loved one did not make it. However, outside of all that craziness is an operating room (OR). A place filled with pressure, intensity, high hopes, and stress. There to help control the environment is a surgical technologist. While preparing patients for surgery, surgical technologists manage the equipment and operating room, follow the instructions of the surgeon, and ensure the safety of the patient.
As a medical / surgical RN, I provided care for the elderly, the infirm, the mentally challenged, the young, and the psychologically disturbed. The wide variety of patients exposed me to the effects of life style choices, health care choices, and the resulting impacts to the patient as well as to the family of the patient. This experience has fully matured my view of the awesome responsibility that we, as health care professionals, have been charged with, and it has furthered my desire to obtain the skills necessary to provide more advanced care for my patients. In addition to exposure, maturity and experience, my career as a medical / surgical RN has also sharpened my critical thinking abilities and provided insight on observing signs and symptoms that a patient may be unware of. Furthermore, as a charge nurse I learned the importance of collaborating with other health care professionals in order to provide the highest level of care available. In summary, my career as an RN has provided valuable experience, maturity, exposure to impact and outcome, enhanced my critical thinking abilities, and improved my collaboration
Ignatavicius, D. D., & Workman, M. L. (2013). Medical-surgical nursing: patient-centered collaborative care (7th ed.). St. Louis: Elsevier Saunders.
My future career goal is to become an anesthesiologist. An anesthesiologist administers an anesthetic to patients before going into surgery. They also have to keep monitor of vital life signs and make sure everything in the body is functioning properly while under the anesthetic. I think being an anesthesiologist is something I’d enjoy being because I like being in control. I like making sure people are okay and that is specifically what anesthesiologists do; they make sure the patient can’t feel any pain and is comfortable during surgery.
Five levels are used to describe the progression of nursing expertise in a clinical setting: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert (4). In the novice stage nurses lack experience and confidence to perform actions independent of guidelines and rules (Benner,p. 403). A novice nurse, without asking if the patient is in pain, may not acknowledge that a postsurgical patient in the recovery room has pain if the patient is laying quietly in bed although their blood pressure and heart rate have increased from preoperative levels. The advanced beginner, having had more experience with postsurgical patients may notice the patient's blood pressure and heart rate changes and believe the patient is in pain however, the nurse may conference with other nursing staff to confirm the assumption. Competent nurses begin to predict situations and patterns from previous experience and use time management skills more effectively (4, 124).
Davenport, Joan M., Stacy Estridge, and Dolores M. Zygmont. Medical-surgical nursing. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008, 66-88.
Brunner, L.S. & Suddarth, D. S Textbook of Medical- Surgical Nursing, 1988 6th ed. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia
The role of the nurse in the preoperative area is to determine the patient’s psychological status to help with the use of coping during the surgery process. Determine physiologic factors directly or indirectly related to the surgical procedure that may cause operative risk factors. Establish baseline data for comparison in the intraoperative and postoperative period. Participate in the identification and documentation of the surgical site and or side of body on which the procedure is to be performed. Identify prescription drugs, over the counter, and herbal supplements that are taken by the patient that may interact and affect the surgical outcome. Document the results of all preoperative laboratory and diagnostic tests in the patient’s record
Sullivan, M. E., Trial, J., Baker, C., Inaba, K., Etcheverry, J., Nally, M., & Crookes, P. (2014). A framework for professionalism in surgery: What is important to medical students? The American Journal of Surgery, 207(2), 255-259. Retrieved from ProQuest.
I went to the operating room on March 23, 2016 for the Wilkes Community College Nursing Class of 2017 for observation. Another student and I were assigned to this unit from 7:30am-2:00pm. When we got their we changed into the operating room scrubs, placed a bonnet on our heads and placed booties over our shoes. I got to observe three different surgeries, two laparoscopic shoulder surgeries and one ankle surgery. While cleaning the surgical room for the next surgery, I got to communicate with the nurses and surgical team they explained the flow and equipment that was used in the operating room.
Although students were not allowed in the recovery unit, I was able to talk to one of the recovery nurses. I learned that a nurse’s duty of care includes monitoring the patient’s vital signs and level of consciousness, and maintaining airway patency. Assessing pain and the effectiveness of pain management is also necessary. Once patients are transferred to the surgical ward, the goal is to assist in the recovery process, as well as providing referral details and education on care required when the patient returns home (Hamlin, 2010).