Even after 30 years nursing, Kylie Gibson is still amazed by what she refers to as the “perioperative waltz”.
“Working in theatre is a bit like a dance; it’s very coordinated and everyone is doing their own job, but we are all very focussed on collaboration, communication and mutual respect to achieve the best outcome for our patient.”
Kylie arrived at Mackay Base Hospital in 1997 after 18 months of agency work in Newcastle where she developed a passion for orthopaedics.
“I came to theatre in 1999 after coming in on a day off to watch a knee replacement surgery,” she said.
“It was incredibly eye opening. I just loved it – watching that teamwork and the trust in each other as everybody had different skills and abilities. I was in awe.
“It was also an important part of my journey as a nurse too as it gave me a much better understanding from a patient perspective and how I could then adopt and change my practise to help them in a much more effective way.”
When the opportunity presented itself, Kylie jumped at the chance to swap roles with a theatre nurse.
Now 27 years later as the theatre nurse educator at Mackay Base Hospital, Kylie leads a team of 65 perioperative staff including 10 agency nurses who are responsible for the seamless orchestration of procedures and wellbeing of those in their care.
“Perioperative nursing has always been quite a mystery for a lot of other nurses – historically we’ve had a bit of a reputation for being serious or cold – but I think that’s just developed really as we need a bit of a self-protection mechanism,” she said.
“Theatre is really a great place to work, but you have to develop some type of preservation emotionally. There’s so many memorable moments, like witnessing a mum and dad saying good bye to their beautiful son who has donated his organs; the joy on a parent’s face when they meet their newborn; seeing the relief of a patient when a doctor gives them the all-clear after cancer surgery.
“The outcomes are definitely more positive than sad and negative. We see so many profoundly beautiful things but you also see some utterly tragic things.”
In addition to the emotional challenges, there’s the physical demands of the job.
“You can often be scrubbed for hours – so standing for a whole shift or not eating for hours on end. You can’t just walk out when a shift is finished and a patient is still on the table or they are still coming in the door.”
Regional hospitals and theatres provided great learning opportunities with staff trained to transition across specialities.
“Working in theatre you develop specialist skills; I tell junior staff coming to theatre that it’s like doing another three-year degree,” Kylie said.
“You might be in theatre and then might get called to recovery for a patient, then get called to anaesthetic or somewhere else.
“But that ability to chop and change at a moment’s notice is a huge set of skills to have. I think sometimes the team doesn’t realise how amazing they really are – they can cover at a moment’s notice and flip their mindset and focus from instrumentation to anaesthetics or recovery.”
Perioperative Nurses Week (10 to 16 November) was a time to celebrate the power of collaboration, communication and respect, Kylie said.
“Perioperative nurses are autonomous in our professionalism, but you are also part of a team and cannot work alone. You work collaboratively with so many others on behalf of the patient on the table and that’s an amazing feeling,” she said.
