Pamela Haliot

I have been blessed with amazing nurses who raised me in the operating room, and I owe it all to them. These incredible RNs took a chance on me and taught me everything I know. Rita Borden was the one who took a chance on me and hired me. Karen Toes was my manager. Then there were nurses like Leslie Langdon, Jan Currier, Mary Meffy, Ann Crowder, Carrie Dahlman, Monica Saudi, George Ann Porterfield, and so many others who mentored me. I also learned from scrub techs like Joni Campion and Lisa Strawn, and from surgeons like Harold Haston, Stanley Goldberg, Sheldon Roberts, and Fred Florendo, as well as anesthesiologists like Reza Carrazzi. The list is a mile long, but these people shaped who I am today.

As simple as it sounds, breathe. In such a high-stress environment like surgery, remembering to breathe helps you stay calm and focused when things get tense.

This is somebody's family member on the operating table - their mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin, best friend. Things can get tense in the OR, and maybe you're working with a surgeon that you don't mostly care for, or the nurse, or your anesthesia provider, but it isn't about them. It's about that patient. That's the only thing that matters, because when you clock out, you're getting in your own car and going home. Those that you were working with, they're not in your car. You've got to separate and maintain that focus that the patient is the only concern. Your role as a surgical technologist is to ensure that you have done everything in your power to assist with that surgeon. But then you have to be on your toes, and can't panic. You can't shut down, you have got to go into overdrive and be 10 steps ahead.

Besides the fact that it's physically and emotionally exhausting, self-care is important. That's something that I feel that those of us that are in healthcare are probably pretty weak upon, because we put everybody else first. You're not just mentally drained when you leave, you're also physically drained. As simple as going and getting a manicure, I can't tell you the last time I had one, and it's probably been a year and a half.

First and foremost, honesty. Without that, there's no trust. In surgery, if you're dishonest, your patient is going to suffer. If you've done something that compromises that patient, you've got to own it. There will be consequences, but take that consequence and that situation and you learn from it. Your integrity and values - your patient is depending upon them, because once they go to sleep, they have no control. We're all human, we do make mistakes, so just own it and deal with it. Your surgeon, your anesthesia provider, your nurse, your whole team, and your facility is depending upon that from you.