title: A night in the life of an OR nurse.
abstract: The author shares a personal experience, during a night shift in the OR, that changed her forever. I was defined as a nurse by that moment of trauma. I spent 9 years as a trauma specialist in a large U.S. hospital. We did gun shots and stabbings every single night. After facing the results of too many school shootings, I came back to Canada. I was tired. After that night, death was never again an idea, a poetic notion of the spirit leaving the body. It was cold, it was pulseless, it was bloody, and it has a smell all it's own. To this day I can tell if a patient is going to die on the table, I can smell it. I had faced fear and death, and survived. I was certainly not "new" anymore... nor was I naïve.
authors.affiliation: Surgical Services, Alberta Children's Hospital, Calgary, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Cindy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Laukkanen
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002321:Career Choice; D006801:Humans; D009104:Multiple Trauma / Q000451:nursing; D009551:Night Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D009871:Operating Room Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*