What inspired you to become a nurse?
After I graduated from high school, I really wanted to go to Tartu to continue my studies. The choice fell on medical school because nursing seemed like a safe choice for life. I also knew that nursing is a broad and ever-changing field that offers endless opportunities for learning and development.
Why did you choose the profession of operating nurse?
Chance played an important role. When I was graduating from medical school in 1998 and looking for a job, I had never heard of OR nursing. However, as luck would have it, Sveta, the guard at my dormitory at Nooruse Street Medical School, who worked part-time in the sterilization department, told me that the surgical service at Maarjamõisa Hospital was looking for surgical nurses. So, as a naive new nurse, I went to the surgery service to ask for a job.
When I started working there, I fell in love with it. During the first operation I received instructions from the oldest operating nurse in Estonia, Valve Merisalu, who worked as an operating nurse at the age of 80. When he heard that I was at work on the first day and I knew nothing about this job, he said with a smile: “Very good. Then you will be incorrupt”. At the time I did not understand this saying. Only now do I understand what he meant by that. In each hospital, surgeons have their own handwriting, according to which operating nurses adapt.
What is the job of an operating room nurse and how does it differ from the job of a regular nurse?
The operating room nurse defends the patient in the most vulnerable moment…
Interviews with a representative of a demanding profession, read more in the article.
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2023-12-06 11:22:27
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