OR Assistant, Full-time, Rotating

About the Role

The Operating Room Assistant (ORA) is an integral part of the surgical team, providing support services to the surgical patient and OR team. This position promotes efficiency in the operating room for patients and the OR team.

Schedule

• This is a rotating, full-time position requiring shifting to weekends, various shifts, and providing holiday coverage as needed.
• Orientation Schedule: Varies between 7:00 am-3:30 pm, 3:00 pm-11:30 pm, and 11:00 pm-7:30 am.
• Permanent Shift: Tuesday through Thursday 3:00 pm-11:30 pm and Friday through Saturday 11:00 pm-7:30 am.
• On-call Requirements: 11:00 pm to 7:00 am on weekdays and 24 hours on weekends, with a 1-hour response time to be onsite when called.

Key Responsibilities

Surgical Specimens & Blood Products

• Transports specimens from OR to universal tube system and tubes to appropriate location.
• Logs each surgical pathology specimen into the pathology log book, recording time transported and initials.
• Responds to specimen pick-up requests immediately.
• Picks up Faxitron specimens from the OR and transports them to radiology immediately for processing.
• Performs daily specimen reconciliation with pathology staff for quality management.
• Receives blood products via the universal tube system and directly from the blood bank, places them in the blood refrigerator, and delivers them to the OR suite as directed, adhering to the reconciliation communication process.
• Picks up and returns the blood refrigerator to and from the blood bank as directed.
• Transports all surgical pathology tissue specimens directly from the OR to the pathology lab, logs them in the book, and performs handoff.

CSS Responsibilities

• Transports soiled case carts to the soiled lift and sends them to CSS for re-sterilization.
• Operates the clean case cart lift, removes clean case carts and instruments, and delivers them to the appropriate OR suites.

Surgical Patient & Belongings Transport

• Transports surgical patients.
• Assists in the OR with patient lifting, positioning, and transfer as directed by nursing staff.
• Delivers SDS patient belongings to the correct patient in the recovery room and to nursing units as necessary.

Equipment/Supplies

• Transports lasers, microscopes, and other OR equipment from storage areas to the appropriate OR suite and returns them to storage when no longer needed.
• Obtains supplies from the warehouse pod cart and delivers them to OR rooms.
• Consistently refills warmers with blankets and irrigation solutions.
• Replenishes scrub brushes, masks, and goggles as needed.
• Exchanges empty O2 tanks for full tanks on patient stretchers and beds when below 1-PSI.
• Moves clean total joint/bariatric/clinitron and specialty beds from various locations and places them outside of OR suites intra-operatively as directed.
• Cleans each patient stretcher thoroughly (Monday-Wednesday-Friday).
• Performs intra-op linen changes on each stretcher outside of the operating rooms.
• Docks Neptune suction machine after each use.
• Picks up and returns supplies from other departments as needed.
• Identifies, isolates, communicates, and documents broken equipment for repair, specifying the malfunction.
• Inventories, reports, and replenishes forms when levels are low.
• Places equipment inside and outside of OR suites for the next day's first cases.
• Assists in the readiness and assembly of surgical supplies and room setup.

Communications

• Demonstrates clear and logical thinking skills.
• Ability to make good, sound patient-first decisions.
• Basic reading and writing skills for understanding and documentation.
• Takes and receives directions from the CDC and nursing staff in the delivery and promotion of quality services.
• Demonstrates daily flexibility to perform tasks while interacting with control desk and nursing staff.
• Maintains communication link with the CDC by communicating completion of assigned tasks, delays, changes, and other pertinent information for relay to the OR team.
• Responds to Expediter "ORA" light in a timely manner.
• Interacts and communicates with the ORSC or charge nurse of the POD for pod-specific duties.
• Documents name and pager number on the POD grease board daily.

Pager Responsibilities

• Responds immediately when paged.

Other Duties/Responsibilities

• Demonstrates a pro-active approach to achieve work completion.
• Ability to work effectively with other team members and charge staff.
• Assists in the surgical patient's pre-operative skin prep.
• Precepts new employees in job responsibilities.
• Adheres to universal tube system standards and utilizes downtime procedures as necessary.
• Must be able to walk and stand for the entire shift.
• Supports other pods to promote quality services and productivity.
• Assists and initiates between-case cleaning when necessary.
• Maintains a clean and orderly work environment.
• Reports availability to the shift RC/manager for re-assignment upon completion of all rooms in the assigned pod.
• Records and time stamps all activity performed onto the ORA log/trip sheet for each shift worked.
• This position requires on-call duties.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• High School graduate
• BLS (Provider) through the American Heart Association
• Ability to walk and stand for entire shift.
• Basic reading and writing skills.
• Clear and logical thinking skills.
• Good sound patient-first decision-making abilities.
• Flexibility to perform tasks.

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous hospital experience in transport or Environmental Services.
• Excellent customer service and friendly skills.