If you’ve never been to theatre – as a patient or clinician - you mightn’t know much about what goes on behind those closed doors. The reality is, there’s a lot going on, and for Perioperative Nurses Week – which this year takes place from 2-8 October – we’re turning the surgical lights to shine on perioperative nurses!
Aimee Todd is the Perioperative Nurse Educator at Metro South’s Princess Alexandra Hospital. The 350-strong nursing team work as part of a multidisciplinary team including anaesthetists, surgeons, administration, and operational staff to support patients undergoing a procedure, anaesthetic, or both.
Aimee explained there are actually five types of perioperative nurses, with the term ‘perioperative’ itself encompassing the various stages of surgery. “We look after patients from their admission to hospital, all the way through surgery to the recovery unit and discharge,” Aimee explained. “So, you can work in admission and discharge, as an anaesthetic nurse, an instrument or circulating nurse who assists the surgeon, central sterilisation nurse, or recovery nurse.”
Her first experience in the perioperative environment was as a nursing student on placement. “I remember thinking, I have no idea what perioperative nursing entails.” Aimee even remembers the first procedure she witnessed while on that placement. “It was an open reduction internal fixation of an ulna fracture – I think the child was seven – they had fallen off the monkey bars,” she said.
“I was fascinated by the whole process – from the anaesthetic nurse helping put them to sleep, then reassuring the child’s mum that everything was going to be ok, watching the preparation, then the surgery, seeing the fracture and how they plated it, and then following them out to recovery and watching the child wake up and recover.”
“From that point on, I wanted to see every operation in existence.”
Aimee’s love for perioperative nursing stems from the fact there is so much scope to the specialty and that every day is different. “The fact that I will come to work tomorrow, even if it’s the same procedure, the patient is different, the anaesthetic might be different, the surgical approach different, the type of prosthesis we use might be different – no two days are the same,” she said. “Every procedure can be different so we’re learning something new every day.”
Aimee Todd, Perioperative Nurse Educator at Metro South’s Princess Alexandra Hospital
Aimee also appreciates being able to support patients. “I was really drawn to caring for patients in their most vulnerable state. Often, they are unconscious and can’t advocate for themselves, but we have taken their problem and fixed it and helped improve that patient’s journey,” Aimee said.
While Aimee says they are seeing older, more complex and sicker patients, the advancements in surgical techniques and technology means they are able to help more people than before.
She is also excited by the quality of the nurses coming out of university. “It’s really exciting to see the new practitioners coming through. They are well trained, they are getting good clinical exposure, and they are getting the latest evidence. That is a great opportunity for us to not always do what we’ve always been doing, and to look at how we can do things differently.”
For Perioperative Nurses Week, Aimee would like to give a shout out to all perioperative nurses.
“For us, we don’t get closure on patients – we don’t get to find out how they went once they leave recovery, which unknowingly can cause a bit of distress. So, we are sometimes an unsung profession. But we’re a strong workforce. We generate a lot of care for patients - who often don’t even remember us!”
We wish all periop nurses a happy Perioperative Nurses Week for 2022!
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