Charlotte talks about training in the O.R.

Interviewer: So when you were in the O.R., would it be just one student nurse, or a few student nurses?

Charlotte, Class of 1969: It would be one, maybe two, max because you were with the regular team. You might be… first time you might be just unpacking the… opening up the surgical packs, the next time you might be putting, well, opening the trays and getting them assembled. You know, they came preassembled but you made sure that everything was there that… particular doctors had particular trays set up for their needs. And they might like a particular instrument, whereas somebody else would use something else. So you had to make sure that they were right. But you did end up being scrubbed in. You, of course had to scrub in if you were in the O.R. at all. And we did get the… we would be the nurse that would hand the instruments to the doctor, and I’m trying to think. Some of the needles were pre-… pre-threaded and some of them weren’t. It depended on what you were using. And I remember we had to, sometimes, thread the needles. You were holding the needle in a clamp, and then you were holding the thread in a clamp, and you had to get the two of them to meet. And fortunately I had very good eyesight, and at that point I was fairly well coordinated so I usually managed to get it in. Sometimes a few tries and then, one of the other nurses who was watching would “Just do it… let me… give that,” because the doctor’s going to need thirty seconds. [Laughs.] So, you know, they cooperated, but they did try to give us O.R. experience. Obviously we were not going to be O.R. nurses, but they wanted us to have the experience.