Nurse's Career Insights: Life Behind Operating Room Doors
3/2/202624 min
Operating-Room Nurse
Ever wonder what really happens behind those operating room doors? In this episode, longtime OR nurse Patti Columbia Walsh shares valuable career insights from her 40-year experience in one of healthcare's most high-stakes jobs. From anticipating every surgeon’s move to handling medical emergencies, she reveals the fast-paced reality and success factors of working in the OR.
If you’re exploring a career in nursing or considering a career change, Patti's real job advice and behind-the-scenes perspective offer practical tips and honesty about the profession’s challenges and rewards — includin...
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First 90 secondsPatti Columbia Walsh· Guest0:00
[gentle music] We have robotic surgery that we do with, uh, which I am fascinated by, that the surgeon can be over here and the patient's here, and be doing the operation from the other side of the room. It fascinates me.
Mirav Ozeri· Host0:14
Yes, we're going to talk about robotic surgeries and others. Welcome back to How Much Can I Make? I'm your host, Morag Ozeri. Today, I'm gonna chat with my friend, Patty Columbia Walsh, who's been an operating room nurse for 40 years. I really wanna know what it's like to work under high pressure in such high-stake environment. I don't think I could do this. Can you? So let's find out what really goes on behind those OR doors. Patty, thanks a lot for doing it.
Patti Columbia Walsh· Guest0:47
Oh, thank you for having me.
Mirav Ozeri· Host0:49
Really appreciate it.
Patti Columbia Walsh· Guest0:49
I appreciate as well.
Mirav Ozeri· Host0:49
First let's start with, how did you become operating room nurse?
Patti Columbia Walsh· Guest0:54
When I was in nursing school, I never liked, uh, the bedside with patients because I became attached to the patients, and it was very difficult for me to watch people who were sick every day. So I decided that the OR was for me, because a patient comes in, we take care of him, and we never see him again, and that was more... It was easier for me to become a nurse doing that type of nursing. And also, I was told when I was going through a rotation of the OR in nursing school, I was told by an OR nurse that, "You sh- do not become an OR nurse. You're never gonna do it." And that also gave me, uh, a