It's often obvious when you outgrow your current space. At one of my former hospitals, the surgical schedule extended way too late in the day, surgeons weren't happy, and patients and staff complained about delayed...

Long before we were in the grip of a global pandemic and surgical masks became fashion accessories, OR nurses were known to stash hard-to-come-by supplies such as gloves and gowns and, yes, N95s. Of course, COVID has...

Random. My 28-year-old daughter, Dani, called to say she'd lost her sense of taste and smell. She's a pediatric occupational therapist in South Carolina. Her colleague has the same symptoms and tested positive...

I've never been so happy to watch the ball drop on New Year's Eve. As soon as it touched down and ended the year we want to forget, I looked forward and focused on setting some self-care goals....

Ah, Thanksgiving. Time for turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie. It's over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go — whether physically or virtually....

There's no question major changes have been made in the OR as a result of COVID-19. Of course, changes come with a lot of complaints. We perioperative nurses would...

Many periop nurses who were laid off or furloughed during the Great Elective Surgery shutdown of 2020 have been back at work for several months, but the pandemic...

Like religion or politics, I don’t feel comfortable talking about the reopening of our country. It makes me anxious. I don’t believe we’re ready even though I understand the...

Do you find your energy starting to lag as your stress rises? You might want to take a look at your diet. There's a direct correlation between what we ingest and how stressed...

Now that electives are back on, I’ve become nostalgic for insanely packed days of 25-plus surgeries with four rooms humming, nurses crisscrossing the hall and a waiting...

Behind Closed Doors: Pandemonium During the Pandemic; People cope with the fear of the unknown in interesting ways.

Behind Closed Doors: Full Moon Fever; I'm convinced Nurse Luna is to blame for odd OR occurrences.

Behind Closed Doors; My 2020 New Year's Resolutions

On the 1st day of Christmas my OR gave to me … PTSD from the Devil incarnate of a scrub tech I had to work with every day. I would call her a witch or a female dog...

I've been blessed to check off another year as an OR nurse. Now is as good a time as any to give thanks for the good fortune and one-of-a-kind experiences...

Let's face it, there are so many aspects of life in the OR that are downright frightening. From the spooky and shadowy to the gross and ghoulish, we nurses know all about...

When I'm Queen of the World, new-job orientation will be department-specific. I don't know a thing about ICU or ER, nor do I need to, yet I just endured an incredibly,,,

There are nurses, and then there are operating room nurses, those masked crusaders infused with a special blend of smarts, savvy and strength to stand up for patients...

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but I'd rather sleep a few minutes longer than make bacon and eggs or eat cereal that changes the color of...

Soon after I started my career in the OR 38 (!) years ago, the first Universal Law of OR Nursing grabbed me by my scrub jacket and shook me into a higher state of...