Weeks 5 and 6

This week and next week I am in the OR core. I am on the 7am-3:15pm shift this week, and 3pm-11:15pm next week. The core is surrounded by all the operating rooms and there is a door from the core to each room. Inside the core is where instruments and supplies etc are kept.

So What I do each morning is start the autoclaves and run the function tests on them, and also the sterris machine which does yet another different kind of sterilization for instruments that cant go in an autoclave. You dont usually do a lot of sterilizing in the OR...the only time you really sterilize anything in the OR is if a Dr or nurse drops something on the floor that they need again in that surgery, and in that case we would falsh sterilize the items, which is a super short cycle. Some Dr's also have certain instruments that they will only use, and so they might use it in one surgery and want it in the next so we will sterilize it. Other than that, most things get sent to Central processing to be sterilized. The majority of instruments and stuff are also kept in CP (and stores) so when we are getting low on things we get stuff sent up from CP and stores.



So the rest of the day the case carts (the carts full of all the instruments and supplies for the surgeries) are sent up from central processing, and we get a list of stuff that we add to each cart. So that is what I do most of my day is pick for carts. We also get called when there is an add on (emergency )surgery and we book it and send it to CP and stores and they load their stuff then send it to us and we load our stuff then its ready for the surgery.

So sometimes it will be quite slow for us, and then all the sudden it will be a gong show with nurses running out of rooms and asking us to get something quick or show them where something is quick or a we get a bunch of add ons. Nurses literally run in and out of rooms so theres a lot of nurse dodging. Doctors sometimes too. I swear the other day when a doctor came hurrying out of a room I heard him say "oh frick" under his breath. Good times...