The Importance of 15 minutes

Time really passed by so fast.

It was little more than a year ago when we were still 'green' student nurses.

After all the trials and tribulations of managing our studies, coupled with all the problems that seem to hit you at inopportune timings, things seem to be finally looking up.

I can barely contain my excitement about being posted to Mt. E this time and in the OT. ward some more. I was so hyped about it that I woke at 4am to check on what I had to bring for clinical. The anticipation was understandable, as this is my first time at Mt. E and the OT.

This is the time when I finally learn the advance tools of the trade. The stuffs that t.v. script writers drew inspirations from. I'm gonna see real critical nursing, surgery and medicine being practised here. The clinical detachment of medicine, the compassionate care of nursing and the entire surgical team's efforts to bring the patient from sick to healthy, made all this learning worthwhile for a novice student nurse like me. This can be considered the "saving lives" part of what we are doing as nurses.

The day started with a quick orientation by our CP instructors. We are briefed on Do's and Don'ts. Then we changed to the scrubs and footwear to enter the OT areas! Miss Tan and Sister Tan were very nice to orientate us throughout the OT areas and also to answer our questions. We were assigned to SSN Irene who will oversee our learning and orientation to the processes of OT. We were sent to the recovery area for post operation patients to recover. This will be the equivalent of the PACU, from what we learnt from our classes. I learnt the importance of the first 15 mins which starts counting when patient is wheeled in to recovery area. The after effects of anaesthesia and the generally physical weakness of patients after surgery can not be underestimated. There will always be chance that complications may occur at any moment for the patient.

From my observations of the nurses at work, and interactions with them during break times, I can see and feel that they all took their work very seriously. They combined the best of their nursing skills, knowledge and compassion, into what seems to be effortless work-flow but in reality, it is very physically and mentally demanding.

Make sure that there are enough of this-tube-and-that-tube of every sizes in the drawers, the equipment checks on valves and suction machines, the system tests on monitoring devices, the preparations for each surgery, the in-depth understanding of ALL the drugs used and their effects on patients' recovery and etc...

All the above are just daily run-through for these nurses. And I have not managed to list them all. They made me feel that nurses are worth a lot more than they are given credit for by the average layperson. Imagine doing all these things and still having to remember the preferences for surgical set-up of each surgeon. Seriously, what will happen if there are no nurses running the show in OT? I think it will utter chaos!

I am going to make the best of my 2 short weeks there and learn as much as I possibly can about this aspect of nursing. I've got to find out how does a Magill circuit works before I conked off for the night or else I will be wondering about it tomorrow!