Working Outside Your Service Line: The More You Know

If you’ve read our blogs or listened to our podcasts, you probably know that cardiac is my specialty. I love everything that comes with it—but once in a while, I do miss other specialties. Now, I know not everyone loves to work outside of their specialty. Ortho people love ortho, for example, and if you ask them to do a gallbladder, just wait for that eye roll!

However, it’s not always a bad thing to get put in a case you haven’t done in a long time. That was my experience this past 4th of July.

Saying Yes to Something Different

I willingly took some general call and picked up a bonus shift in our main OR. Sure, the extra pay was part of the reason, but honestly, I just like to work in the main OR once in a while. I like to keep up with what’s going on in other services. I like to keep those skills active. You never know what might happen in life.

Between shifts, I scrubbed a gallbladder. I hadn’t done that in two years! (Still know how to do it, by the way!) I did eye surgeries with a very experienced eye scrub nurse—and yes, I still remember how to do all the meds and gas administration. I even circulated my first robot case! (We’ll skip the why we did a robot case on the weekend for now.) I was nervous, but again, I was with a very experienced robotic nurse, and it went smoothly. After that, it was back to the neuro room for an emergency hematoma removal. I finished the weekend off with another gallbladder.

I worked a lot that weekend. I was very tired by Sunday night—but it was a good tired.

Why You Need to Stay Well-Rounded

Back in March of 2020, when ORs across the country shut down elective surgery due to the pandemic, we had to make decisions about our employment. You could take furlough or be part of the labor pool, but you’d have to share possible work opportunities with many others in the hospital.

Having taught nursing students for several years, I was able to go work on the med/surg floors since I had that experience from teaching clinicals. OR nurses who weren’t getting any hours started contacting me, asking me to teach them how to “be nurses” so they could get shifts on the floor.

It may sound harsh, but I said no.

It’s not that I wasn’t willing—it’s that nursing is a profession where you need to keep up your skills and knowledge to make yourself marketable. Just because you work in the OR doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep up with what’s going on in other areas of nursing. And just because you do neuro full time doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know what’s happening in the ortho world.

Life throws you curveballs. You never know what’s going to happen. Limiting your knowledge and skills can put you at a disadvantage if a job change comes up. The more well-rounded candidates may get the job you’re vying for.

Take the Opportunity to Learn

It’s actually pretty easy to be more knowledgeable—you just have to step up and ask. Maybe try putting in that IV for anesthesia while they’re intubating. Head back to the vascular room and see if you can observe and learn. Take one call shift outside of your specialty and do procedures you haven’t done in years.

I know what you’re thinking: “I won’t be appreciated for this.”

And maybe you won’t.

But you can appreciate knowing that you have skills and knowledge that others may not.

Keep up the great work,

Lindsey