PERIOPERATIVE AIDE (6am-2:30pm)

The Perioperative Aide at Riverside Healthcare plays a crucial role in supporting the surgical team by ensuring the procedural room is prepared and maintained to the highest standards. This position is responsible for assisting with patient transport, equipment setup, and room turnover between procedures. The Perioperative Aide ensures a safe, clean, and organized environment to support optimal patient care. The Perioperative Aide, under supervision and/or according to established guidelines assists with the smooth operation of the Anesthesia Department by maintaining and providing equipment and supplies in inventory and to anesthetizing locations.

Essential Duties

• Assist procedural staff with patient lifting, positioning, and transfers.
• Prepare and clean suites, ensuring proper equipment, furniture, and supplies are available.
• Maintain and organize anesthesia equipment, supplies, and drugs in procedural rooms and travel carts.
• Clean anesthesia equipment, scrub sinks, and mop areas between cases and at the end of the day.
• Manage stock levels by restocking turnover carts, sterile water, saline, and other solutions.
• Ensure proper handling and disposal of Sharp containers and biohazard materials.
• Retrieve blood from the blood bank, and pharmacy orders, and transport specimens to the lab.
• Support turnover between cases by terminally cleaning rooms and preparing rooms for high-priority and emergency cases.
• Maintain hallways and lounges by keeping equipment organized and ensuring cleanliness.
• Work with Environmental Services (EVS) to ensure waste removal and blanket warmer maintenance.
• Participate in daily huddles, unit meetings, and process improvement discussions to optimize team efficiency. 
• Understands that role is not limited to what is listed in the job description and that team work is defined by doing whatever is necessary to promote efficiencies and provide safe patient care.

Non-essential Duties

• Order and maintain coffee, cafeteria, and linen supplies.
• Refill blanket warmers and mop buckets, and replace Sharp containers.
• Restock scrub supplies, sterile water, saline, and turnover carts daily.
• Assist in maintaining clear hallways and equipment storage areas.
• Prepare Aline and Hotlines daily or when necessary, and handle department outdates.
• Support EVS in managing waste and linen throughout the day.

Preferred Experience

• • Preferred medical background with basic knowledge of medical terminology, procedures, and healthcare practices.

Required Licensure/Education

• High school diploma or equivalent
• CNA certification

Preferred Education

• BLS within 6 months of hire

Employee Health Requirements

Exposure to:

• Chemicals: Disinfectants, Prefer, and refer to MSDS Sheets as indicated
• Video Display Terminals: Average
• Blood and Body Fluids: There is extreme potential to blood and body fluids when cleaning equipment at the end of a surgical procedure. All patients are considered infectious and the OR follows universal precautions on all procedures, greatly reducing the risk to the OR personnel.
• TB or Airborne Pathogens: There is extreme potential for exposure to airborne pathogens. The OR follows universal precautions on all cases thus greatly reducing the risk to the OR personnel.

Sensory requirements (speech, vision, smell, hearing, touch):

• Speech: Required to communicate with surgeons, anesthesia personnel, patients and co-workers.
• Vision: Required to safely transport patients on carts or in wheelchairs to the OR. Necessary to inspect rooms after cleaning to insure safe environment for succeeding patients. 
• Smell: Helpful to note presence of electrical/fire safety. 
• Hearing: Necessary to hear patient's concerns, hear families' concerns, hear intercom for help in a room, hear call for turnover, hear alarms (fire, etc). 
• Touch: Needed to operate controls of equipment.

Activity/Lifting Requirements:

Percentage of time during the normal workday the employee is required to:

• Sit: 5%
• Twist: 2%
• Stand: 80%
• Crawl: 0%
• Walk: 80%
• Kneel: 1%
• Lift: 5%
• Drive: 0%
• Squat: 2%
• Climb: 0%
• Bend: 2%
• Reach above shoulders: 1%

The weight required to be lifted each normal workday according to the continuum described below:

• Up to 10 lbs: Frequently
• Up to 20 lbs: Frequently
• Up to 35 lbs: Frequently
• Up to 60 lbs: Occasionally
• Up to 75 lbs: Not Required
• Up to 100 lbs: Not Required
• Over 100 lbs: Not Required

Describe and explain the lifting and carrying requirements.

Mop buckets filled and lifted from the sink at waist level and lowered to floor. Transport patients from bed to cart after surgery involves lifting. Specimen containers are transported from OR on a tray and carried to Lab approximately 200-400'. X-ray folders may weigh 5-15 lbs. Bags of clean mop head and rags folded are carried from laundry. Garbage bags, dirty mop heads and trash bags.

Maximum consecutive time (minutes) during the normal workday for each activity:

• Sit: 30
• Twist: 5
• Stand: 300
• Crawl: 0
• Walk: 300
• Kneel: 1
• Lift: 5
• Drive: 0
• Squat: 2 Climb: 5
• Bend: 25
• Reach above shoulders: 2

Repetitive use of hands (Frequency indicated):

• Simple grasp up to 10 lbs. Normal weight: 5-10lbs: frequent
• Pushing &pulling Normal weight: 50-200 lbs.
• Fine Manipulation: Pushing elevator buttons, changing suction lids, containers, tubing.

Repetitive use of foot or feet in operating machine control: 

Raise and lower OR tables, PACU carts with moderate pressure, utilized in positioning beds during transport; x-ray, surgery or in an emergency situation from floor to floor, locking beds.

• Environmental Factors (Time Spent): 
• Inside hours: 8-10 
• Outside hours: 0 
• Temperature: Normal Range 
• Lighting: Average
• Noise levels: Average 
• Humidity: Normal Range 
• Atmosphere: Fumes, odors

Special Hazards: 

Mechanical, Chemical - Compressed air tanks, changing gauges on O2, CO2, nitrous tanks. 

Protective Clothing Required: Gloves, gowns and masks as indicated using universal precautions, when cleaning room with disinfectants, germicides.