u/oprah_did-911

Open bowel resection. I left about halfway through for lunch, preceptor took over. I come back in from lunch about 3/4 of the way through, theyre counting when I come in and a lap is missing. FA and Surgeon check inside patient, and see nothing. I break scrub and assist in finding it while the preceptor finishes the case. I Dig through two bags of trash, down on my hands and knees trying to find it. They call for the xray and I continue to search for it. X ray comes in and they find it in the patient.

The case was moving really fast and Im really new. Im trying to focus on the case, focus on my mayo, and focus on passing, safely loading drivers etc, so Im pretty overstimulated and working out how to juggle doing multiple things. I try to pull the laps off before they get saturated because theyre harder to find when theyre soaked with blood.

Am I going to get in trouble? I really dont see how this could possibly be my fault but I overthink things.

Between teachers and nurses Im not sure who complains louder about their plight more. Nurses are generally under paid and overworked in most states, but so are mcdonalds workers and surg techs for that matter. Unlike the former though there isnt nationwide outreach and sympathy for techs

Listen to the surgeon get glazed the entire time, normie NPC conversation, pablum coworker music, sycophantic laughter at unfunny shit, and listening to people talk about their kids.

Just need to vent but throwing a shit ton of info at someone relentlessly is an awful way to learn. Ive had several preceptors and I always have found that I do better with the preceptors who stagger their information and let me finish assisting the doc before telling me about something else. Its just constantly being assaulted with information and Im unable to process the previous info before Im pushed along to some new idea or being told about the next case.

I was told by my preceptor that the trash bag we attach to the table is for suture cases only and that once you sit down in a case you cant stand back up but then told to stand up so i can drape the c arm. Which is it?

I have learned that keeping my suture cases is the best way to know which are which today we did a case and the preceptor kept insisting that the stratofix was a monocryl…I GENTLY told her that it was stratifix and showed her the barbs on the tail…she kept insisting it was monocryl.. ok whatever.

She means well but its just very nerve racking and I make more mistakes when Im being constantly fed information.

After the first three weeks it was pretty easy. Better sleep, my mood level off. Idk if its a place I but I have noticed women are much more communicative to me as are men. Women tend to stare more at you and its really easy to talk to them.

I am going to keep this up as long as I can. Resist the urge to ejaculate and if you have to jerk off just masturbate do not cum. You weel immediately regret it and feel depressed and ashamed. Its not worth it.

For some background I have a AAS in surgical technology, but no formal experience and have been working in hospitals for 6 years. Started out in EVS while in school, great way to dip your toes in the water, be a fly on the wall and observe the different departments. After I graduated I became an endo tech for a few years because my nerves weren’t going to allow me to be a surg tech. Within the last year and a half I took a paycut and became a periop tech and have been in the OR the whole time

After finally getting up the nerve I became a surg tech and with the help of my current job they are willing to train me from the ground up and put me on a 90 day orientation with checkups at 30, 60 and 90 days. They said after the 90 days they would see how my progress was and if they need to revaluate or extend the orientation. And that if I weren’t up to snuff I could possibly be terminated. I have confidence in myself but I really have got to put my nose to the grindstone here and hit the ground running. This was a significant pay rise like double and I am so blessed and grateful for the opportunity and I don’t want to lose it.

I have been scrubbing cases the past month and have been shaking loose the rust, any advice that might help me accelerate my skills faster? Some words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated.