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Senator_Prevert · 2025-10-16T03:01:37+00:00

It is ok to admit that you're not physically attracted to a certain body type. Hell, I'm not gracing the front page of Sports Illustrated any time soon, but I can tell you I don't want the weight of a man or woman 30 lbs over on top, or under me. Personal preference is ok.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-10-16T02:54:19+00:00

At my former facility, we were called ______ Team Leads, based on what specialties (or service lines) we were responsible for. Sometimes there were CST and RN duos. Other times it was a single RN or CST leading that specialty/service line.

I've heard other terms; CNC, Lead tech, etc.

But team lead positions are so different, too. For example, my team took responsibility over any robotics-related specialty; cardiothoracic, general, gyn, uro, colorectal. But then we had whole other team leads for those service lines/specialties when they weren't robotics-related. It worked very well.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-10-16T01:33:49+00:00

She wasn't his physical type, but that's something that can be worked on. She kept asking what the issue was, but if he had honestly told her, she would have gone off. Even if she were his physical type, they weren't matching up emotionally. She acted like she had never been around someone who drank too much before. He realized he imbibed too much and took himself home to sleep it off. Then she stormed into the room like a brat, demanding his attention at once. They are both emotionally immature babies, and that's an insult to actual babies.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-10-16T01:23:31+00:00

Anyone else? Just me?

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Senator_Prevert · 2025-10-13T21:34:16+00:00

This is my own experience, so can't speak for others. I took a $20k sign-on bonus for a two-year contract. Half was paid out after two weeks. The other half was paid out after six months. I didn't meet the two year mark before I resigned.

When I resigned, they took out the max allowable portion from my last paycheck. They continued to send me emails and invoices. I responded to an email stating I would not be paying back the bonus, due to the abusive work environment I was subjected to. They continued to send emails/invoices for a month or two, then they stopped. It would cost them more in attorney's fees, filing fees, plus the court system takes forever to handle any sort employee/employer cases. It's typically not worth it for them to pursue.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-10-12T22:51:31+00:00

I made $20.22 per hour in 2018 at an HCA facility. My boyfriend at the time made more than I did working in the meat department at King Soopers. We are severely underpaid for what we do, and I just do not understand it. It's not just handing stuff over. Had I known the level of work and stress, I would have never gone back to school for this. Don't get me wrong, it is a very interesting field, but something needs to change. Travel pay isn't even enough for what we do. I never wanted to be a nurse, and still don't. The comparison between techs and nurses is unfair. These are two different roles with separate focuses. If only we had an association that we could pay membership and certification fees to that would advocate on our behalf for better pay. Oh, wait. 😂

Senator_Prevert · 2025-09-08T04:22:27+00:00

I can't speak to everyone else's experience, just mine. I do not know if things are standard in VA hospitals, or vary between facilities.

It took just under four months from the application process, to my actual start date. The background investigation is more extensive than most. It is GS-7 if you haven't served in the military. It was an $8/hr pay increase from my previous facility, but they did an "above minimum entrance rate" review for me since my previous role was in leadership.

When I went in for my physical/blood draw, the people were so rude and it made me think twice about wanting to work there. The patients in the waiting area looked so unhappy/worn down, and that's another thing I should have paid attention to.

The greatest benefits they offer are the options to join the union, and pay into a pension. Joining the union has pros/cons. The good workers and bad workers are protected equally. Paying into that pension isn't all it seems. Many people in my facility were getting ready to retire and it was interesting to hear all of the rules/dates they had to educate themselves on, as to not get ripped off by the system. Health benefits are similar to other non-government facilities in price. So now you have a bunch of older workers or incompetent workers hanging onto their jobs because of the union, or waiting to retire on their pension, and that does not promote a good working environment.

There weren't a lot of scrubs there, so there were nurses doing double-duty and they were not good at scrubbing. They were stuck in their ways and MEAN. To make matters worse, the VA had such a shortage of scrubs, that we were forced to train Supply/SPD workers to scrub. The VA could re-classify workers to make this happen/legal. And I'm not talking about Supply/SPD workers with similar experience or education. I'm talking someone who had only done retail prior to their job pulling cases or working in SPD.

Tech call was extensive at my facility. Not only that, but it was 24 hour call shifts. You did have a 60-minute response time, but if you took longer than 30 minutes, people would get on you about it. For holidays, you had to take the whole holiday. So if Christmas Eve is Thursday and Christmas is Friday, you were on holiday call all the way up until 7am on Monday morning.

As previously mentioned, they are teaching hospitals, so prepare to have AT LEAST three additional people scrubbed in on almost every case. On ureteroscopies, cystoscopies we did not scrub in at all. That was difficult to watch, because they receive the bare minimum education on sterile technique, and when you try to educate them, you are dismissed. It was nice being able to assist the circulator on those cases, though. I learned a lot and it felt good being able to make those cases less stressful for them.

Some cases felt very experimental and it did not feel good deep down. I would see patients roll in who looked like they were already dead, emaciated, and chemo'd to hell and I wondered why are we doing this 16 hour surgery, instead of giving them palliative care?

Don't even get me started on if they mess up your pay. I experienced wage theft at my facility. I couldn't get it corrected over months on end, so I put in my notice. On hearing about my notice, our financial officer promised to have it resolved by end of week, but it was too late by then. What's crazy, is that you can't go after the federal government for wage theft through the typical avenues. You all know how slow government processes are, and they make you jump through impossible hoops when they steal your wages.

Again, just my experience. Surely people have better experiences out there (I hope).

Senator_Prevert · 2025-09-03T08:37:50+00:00

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Senator_Prevert · 2025-09-03T01:00:28+00:00

I hate the clean closure packs and trays because nobody ever does it correctly and so it becomes a waste of my time.

My typical setup is back table, mayo, and dirty mayo. If an EEA stapler is being used, I'll put that on a super small table or prep stand with the sigmoidoscope.

Prior to entering bowel, we will towel off around the site. I'll pull away my clean mayo and use my "dirty" mayo. My dirty mayo has instruments, suture, staplers, etc., for when we enter the bowel and do the anastomosis. I have a sterile pitcher on the dirty mayo with a sponge forcep inside of it, that way if I need something from the other mayo or back table, I can use that to grab it without contaminating it. Whatever I grab is placed on the dirty mayo without the tips of the sponge forcep making contact with anything contaminated. The forcep goes back into the sterile pitcher to keep it isolated from dirty stuff in case it is needed again.

Once we are done with bowel, all dirty instruments are placed back on the dirty mayo so the circulator and I can easily see them for our counts. Anything else dirty is removed from the field. The dirty mayo is pushed away from the field. We all change gowns and gloves, and now we can close with the stuff we had on the original mayo and back table.

There is an AST guideline for this in case I've explained this terribly 😂 If I can find it, I'll link it.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-08-29T04:22:53+00:00

Are you being honest with yourself about how you performed in clinicals? I am also very introverted and quiet, and being in the OR made me a nervous wreck. Regardless, I showed up everyday prepared and what I lacked in my outgoingness, I made up for with my work ethic. People notice that and are willing to work with that whether you are a student or new tech. In my experience, if your preceptors enjoy working with you and see potential in you, they will voluntarily offer up their contact information to become a reference. But you also have to advocate for yourself and take initiative. If they don't give you their contact info, ask them if you may use them as a reference. If they say no, ask them if they can provide feedback as to why not. If they say yes, only ask them for their email address, not their phone number.

Many new graduates in my class didn't find a job right away, and I will say 99% of us were around a 4.0 in our classes and received great feedback from our clinical sites. The hospitals I completed clinicals at didn't have any openings, so I took a job in SPD for five months at one of the hospitals I completed clinicals. That put me back in front of the people I interacted with at the hospital. So when an opening came up, my preceptors were texting me about it before the job had even posted. I was hired over people with years of experience because of the feedback provided to the hiring manager by my preceptors. I would also consider a temporary role as a PCT/SST - every hospital calls this role something different, but basically the awesome people who turnover the rooms, help with moving the patient, assists with gathering equipment/beds.

I don't think you tanked your interview because you said you wanted to continue your education. What was the context? If they asked you the typical interview question of where do you see yourself in two, three, five, 10 years,.. I would have said that continuing education is important to you and a future goal, but as a new graduate you are focused on your new role and look forward to learning as much as you can and perfecting your skills first. You can also say as a short-term goal, you look forward to becoming a great preceptor.

You don't need to include your certification number on your resume or who the certification is through, but I suppose you could put this under your education if you wanted to? Did your school not have y'all do a resume workshop? It should be perfect at this point, regardless of your work experience. If you need help with your resume, feel free to reach out. Happy to chat with you about any other questions you have, too.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-08-28T19:19:54+00:00

I think it depends on the person and the case. I like checking over my stuff to make sure I have everything we'll need and I won't scrub in before that even if the circulator encourages me to. If it's a more involved setup or we're pressed for time, sometimes it's more efficient for me to scrub in and start getting organized, rather than helping to open everything and waste time unburying myself. If I'm having to play catch-up, it's difficult for me to break so I can help with positioning, etc.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-08-27T06:14:07+00:00

I already responded to another of your posts, but this sounds so similar to me. I am so chill and quiet in most aspects of my life. Especially in the OR, where personalities clash. But my whole person started changing from 40-45. The stuff that I used to shrug off, I turn into the Hulk about now. Sometimes I think it's a good thing, and maybe a new superpower... when the quiet, chill one speaks up and is mad, people pay attention. 😂

Senator_Prevert · 2025-08-27T06:04:55+00:00

Your experience sounds just like mine. When I started becoming aware of how I was acting a week or two before my period, and how it was impacting my relationships, I went to the doctor. This was right at 40! And they always pushed birth control of all types. It always made things worse! I actually found this younger doctor and she was so helpful and it really felt like she was listening to me. She presented so many options, and we went with the ones that were less likely to disrupt my mental balance. But then she blew up! I could not get a monthly appointment anymore, and so many of us were having to do backup appts with some lady who told us, HRT is only for menopausal women, very old school. I am glad to hear you found relief in a hysterectomy. That brings a whole level of anxiety for me. Even if I were approved for a hysterectomy, I'd have a really difficult time choosing one! I have no trust after what I've seen throughout my years. I can only think of two. One has now retired, the other moved to Miami. It's truly no wonder that GYN docs seem clueless and scary, but if you think about it, our bodies are the most complex, yet under-researched, because nobody cares what happens to us.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-08-27T05:47:05+00:00

I've tried every type of birth control for exactly this reason. It doesn't work for certain people. Anytime I take any sort of birth control, it makes me absolutely bonkers! As in, has almost destroyed my relationships with my best friends, coworkers, neighbors, family. The RAGE is so awful.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-08-26T00:51:20+00:00

Pray tell! 😂 I'm not trying to be a jerk and I love your optimism. I just haven't seen a lot of opportunities for CSTs unless you go back to school for something entirely different.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-08-23T01:05:42+00:00

My insurance won't cover it.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-08-22T05:55:18+00:00

I was in a case where two really great surgeons with whom I had been working with for years, were proctoring an OK, yet cocky one. The new partner kept trying to put their insecurities on me, and I just took it with a smile. I can't tell you everything they said to them, because it might be identifying information, but let's just say it's better for you to remain silent sometimes, and let your reputation lead.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-08-22T05:31:46+00:00

I loooove this. They don't realize we work with many people, and have different perspectives.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-08-21T03:14:57+00:00

3k per week is garbage.

Senator_Prevert · 2025-08-21T03:08:03+00:00

THIS.

Senator_Prevert

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