OR Assistant, Full-time, Rotating

At Northwestern Medicine, every patient interaction makes a difference in cultivating a positive workplace. This patient-first approach is what sets us apart as a leader in the healthcare industry. As an integral part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to join our quest for better healthcare, no matter where you work within the Northwestern Medicine system. At Northwestern Medicine, we pride ourselves on providing competitive benefits: from tuition reimbursement and loan forgiveness to 401(k) matching and lifecycle benefits, we take care of our employees. Ready to join our quest for better?

Schedule: This rotating full-time position will require working on weekends, various shifts, and providing holiday coverage as needed by the department. The orientation schedule will vary between 7:00am-3:30pm, 3:00pm-11:30pm, and 11:00pm-7:30am for experience. After orientation, the permanent shift will be Monday through Friday, 11:00am-7:30pm. This position is full-time, 40 hours per week, 1.0 FTE.

The Operating Room Assistant reflects the mission, vision, and values of Northwestern Memorial, adheres to the organization’s Code of Ethics and Corporate Compliance Program, and complies with all relevant policies, procedures, guidelines and all other regulatory and accreditation standards.

As a member of the surgical team; provides support services to the surgical patient, and OR team.  The ORA is responsible for transporting patients post operatively from the recovery room to Same Day Surgery and direct from the OR to nursing units as assigned.  The ORA is responsible for additional functions including assisting in general cleaning, movement of equipment, specimen and blood products transport and assisting with patient care.  This position promotes efficiency in the operating room for our surgical patients and the OR team.         

Responsibilities:

Surgical Specimens & Blood Products

• Transports specimens from OR to universal tube system and tubes to appropriate location
• Logs each surgical pathology specimen into pathology log book recording time transported and initials
• Responsible for specimen service requests sent by means of specimen pager in Feinberg OR  
• Responds to specimen pick-up requests immediately
• Faxitron specimens are picked up from the OR and walked to radiology immediately for processing
• Performs daily specimen reconciliation with pathology staff and reports for quality management
• Receives blood products via universal tube system and direct from blood bank and places in blood refrigerator and delivers to OR suite as directed adhering to our reconciliation communication process
• Picks up and returns blood refrigerator to and from blood bank as directed
• Walks all surgical pathology tissue specimens direct from OR to path lab; logs in book and performs handoff

CSS Responsibilities

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

Surgical Patient & Belongings Transport

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

Equipment/Supplies

• Transports lasers, microscopes, and other OR equipment from storage areas, down multiple corridors to the appropriate OR suite and returns to equipment storage when no longer needed
• Obtains supplies from warehouse pod cart and delivers to OR rooms
• Consistently and frequently refills warmers with blankets and irrigation solutions to maintain supply
• Replenishes scrub brushes, masks, and goggles as needed to maintain supply      
• Exchanges empty O2 tanks to full tanks as necessary on all patient stretchers and beds when below 1-PSI
• Moves clean total joint/bariatric/clinitron and specialty beds from various locations and places outside of OR suites intra-operatively as directed and notifies control desk coordinator when task completed
• Twists, stoops and bends to clean surgical stretchers as needed and thoroughly clean M-W-F
• Operates copier and copies 4am surgical schedules as per 4am schedule list
• Cleans each patient stretcher as necessary
• Performs intra-op linen change on each stretcher outside of 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 being specific as to identify the malfunction
• Inventories/reports/replenishes forms when form levels are low in POD
• Places equipment inside and outside of OR suite for next day first cases
• Assists in readiness and assembly of surgical supplies and room setup

Communications

• Demonstrates clear and logical thinking skills
• Ability to make good sound patient first decisions
• Requires basic reading and writing skills for understanding and documentation purposes
• Take and receive directions from CDC and nursing staffs in delivery and promotion of quality services
• Demonstrates daily flexibility to perform tasks when interacting with control desk and nursing staffs
• Maintains communication link with CDC by communicating completion of assigned tasks, delays, changes, and other pertinent information for relay to OR team
• ORA must respond to Expediter “ORA” light in timely manner
• The ORA will interact and communicate with the ORSC or charge nurse of the POD who will dispense pod specific duties as summarized in this document
• Daily breaks and lunches will be assigned based on workflow with input form the ORSC and communicated to the shift RC/manager
• The nursing charge person or ORSC will be identified to the ORA by means of the pod grease board and to the department RC on a daily basis
• The ORA documents their name and pager number on POD grease board daily

Pager Responsibilities

• ORA staff must respond immediately when paged 
• ORA staff pager number and name must be recorded on the grease board in pod area daily by ORA staff

Other Duties/Responsibilities

• Demonstrates pro-active approach to achieve work completion

• Ability to get along with other team members and charge staffs

• Assists in the surgical patients pre-operative skin prep
• Precepts new employees in the performance of job responsibilities
• Adheres to universal tube system standards when operating system and utilizes downtime procedure as necessary
• Must be able to walk and stand for entire shift
• ORA supports other pods to promote quality services and productivity
• ORA staff assists and initiates between case cleaning when necessary
• Maintains a clean and orderly work environment
• Upon completion of all rooms in assigned pod, the ORA is to report their availability to the shift RC/manager for re-assignment
• ORA records and time stamps all activity performed onto ORA log/trip sheet for each shift worked
• This position requires the ORA staff to be on-call
• Performs other duties as assigned

Availability

• Demonstrates regular and reliable attendance

Additional Functions                                                  

• Provides assistance with case setup for assigned rooms

Required:

• High School graduate
• Must be able to lift minimum of 50 lbs
• BLS through the American Heart Association

• Physical Demand Requirement:

  • Physical demands required for this role include lift/carry up to 60 pounds and a push/pull force up to 50 pounds

Preferred:

• Previous hospital experience preferred in transport or Environmental Service

• Demonstrates excellent Customer service friendly skills

Northwestern Medicine is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of age, sex, race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation or any other protected status.

If we offer you a job, we will perform a background check that includes a review of any criminal convictions. A conviction does not disqualify you from employment at Northwestern Medicine. We consider this on a case-by-case basis and follow all state and federal guidelines.

Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits that provide employees with tools and resources to improve their physical, emotional, and financial well-being while providing protection for unexpected life events. Please visit our Benefits section to learn more.