Comments on: Observation Days: OR, ED, and ICC http://nursingzen.exobi.com/2007/10/23/observation-days-or-ed-icc/ This blog is about a writer's journey into nursing. First stop: UCSF's Master's Entry Program of Nursing (MEPN). Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:16:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: John http://nursingzen.exobi.com/2007/10/23/observation-days-or-ed-icc/#comment-75 John Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:10:55 +0000 http://nursingzen.exobi.com/2007/10/23/observation-days-or-ed-icc/#comment-75 I was interested in your views on the OR. A few years ago, while finishing my MPH I did a fellowship in the Ab transplant unit of a hospital in New Orleans. I had the chance to see a couple of transplant surgeries and I too was surprised by how "boring" it was for the nurses. (The circulating nurse wasn't playing solitaire, but she was picking out her new bathing suit from the Lane Bryant catalog.) The other thing that sort of scared me was how easy it was to stop thinking of the patient as being a human being. While clearly there is a need to maintain some level of emotional separation from the patient the fact that they are unconscious and draped with sheets makes it far to easy to lose site of the fact that you're taking care of a person. PS...Thanks for the article link! I was interested in your views on the OR. A few years ago, while finishing my MPH I did a fellowship in the Ab transplant unit of a hospital in New Orleans. I had the chance to see a couple of transplant surgeries and I too was surprised by how “boring” it was for the nurses. (The circulating nurse wasn’t playing solitaire, but she was picking out her new bathing suit from the Lane Bryant catalog.)

The other thing that sort of scared me was how easy it was to stop thinking of the patient as being a human being. While clearly there is a need to maintain some level of emotional separation from the patient the fact that they are unconscious and draped with sheets makes it far to easy to lose site of the fact that you’re taking care of a person.

PS…Thanks for the article link!

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