role revision...

I may have to revise my earlier opinion of the role of nurses within the theatre setting.

I had the opportunity to speak with one of the charge nurses there yesterday...

Although the basic tasks are carried out for every patient, each patient is still considered an individual. For example; the patient who comes in for a routine procedure but has other considerations which have to be taken into account, such as cardiac problems. Cardiac problems will impact on the kind of anaesthetic that is used, the staff may not be able to gauge how the patient is with the heart rate read out on the monitor as the patient may have a pacemaker which has set the heart to not exceed a certain limit.

As you can see I don't have all the details on this as it's just too huge an area but what I have learned is that although it looks as if each patient is treated the same this is not always true.