Operating Room Towers

North Tower: The North Tower consists of 20 operating rooms, 1 EP suite, and 1 Cath lab suite. The department is located on the second floor adjacent to the PACU. The Shands OR is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week with an in-house surgical team.

The South Tower consists of 13 operating rooms and one hybrid trauma room. It is located on the second floor of the South Tower adjacent to the pre-op and PACU. The South Tower OR is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week with an in-house surgical team. There is an OR immediately available 24/7 to support the level one trauma center emergency department on the first floor of the South Tower. The OR also has access to interventional radiology, which is staffed by radiology and is within the operating room.

HVN Tower: The Heart Vascular and Neuromedicine (HVN) tower consists of 8 operating rooms, 3 Cardiovascular Hybrid rooms, 2 operating rooms with intraoperative MRI capability, and 2 Interventional Radiology procedure rooms. The department is located on the second floor adjacent to the Pre-op and PACU. The HVN OR has on call teams available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

All operating room towers are staffed with Registered Nurses, Surgical Technologists and ancillary support personnel. The staffing patterns are based on the needs of the operating room.

Patient Population

The facilities serve all patient populations and all levels of the ASA physical classification system. The surgical specialties include orthopedics, neurosurgery, general surgery, gynecology, plastic surgery, urology, pediatrics, vascular, oral surgery, cardiovascular/thoracic, ENT, trauma, ophthalmology, dental, and burn.  These specialties utilize the latest in operating room techniques and equipment. Inpatients and outpatients are cared for in both towers.

Nursing Care

The Perioperative nursing staff are Registered Nurses licensed by the Florida State Board of Nursing.  Surgical Technologists are graduates of community college-based Surgical Technology or comparable programs and they function under the direction of the RN.  New staff are oriented to the unit during a planned orientation ranging from two to six months, depending on previous Perioperative nursing experience.  Professional certification (CNOR) in Perioperative nursing is available from the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN) and ASPAN.  Certification in Surgical Technology (CST) is available from the Association of Surgical Technologists (AST). All staff that are responsible for direct patient care possess Basic Life Support (BLS) skills. Operating room staff are provided educational opportunities to attain and maintain competence in their role as defined by the job description for their specific role and by the Departmental Education Plan.

Health Care Team

The Medical Director is an appointed Board Certified Anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologists provide in-house coverage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the North and South Towers. The HVN Tower has an on-call team for subspecialty care available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  The Associate Vice President of Perioperative Services is responsible for the strategic vision of Perioperative Services and all quality and safety practices. The nursing leadership for the towers includes registered nurses in the position of a Nurse Manager, Clinical Coordinator and Clinical Leader. The Clinical Coordinator is responsible for the day-to-day activities of the operating rooms. This encompasses all operational activities; from the time the patient is scheduled for surgery until the patient is discharged home or transferred to another level of care. The Clinical Coordinator has the responsibility of assisting the Associate Vice President of Surgical Services and Nurse Manager with program development, marketing activities, financial and productivity goals. In the absence of the Clinical Coordinator, another RN will be designated as the team leader for the day. The Clinical Leader (CL) serves as a clinical expert for patient care and services on the unit by providing clinical leadership support. The Clinical Leader provides clinical and analytical support to the perioperative leadership to plan and predict patient care needs based on quality benchmarking, patient acuity/care trends, staff clinical education needs and patient satisfaction.  The Clinical Leader focuses on education, program development and quality measures within Perioperative Services.

Staffing Plan

The staffing plan for all towers is based on the number of anticipated cases. RN and scrub personnel are scheduled in-house 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Staffing in perioperative services is flexed based on the needs of the individual departments. Assignment of staff is done on a daily basis by the charge nurse in collaboration with the manager as needed. Assignments are based on the staff competence, patient acuity and type of procedure. Each operating room will utilize a Registered Nurse in the role of circulator and a scrub person who may be either a trained registered nurse or surgical technologist. A patient support tech (PST) and anesthesia tech (AT) will be available to provide support for the OR staff and anesthesia respectively. 

Reviewed and Revised: 1/2021

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Jennifer Zimmerman, RN, explaining to a parent and her daughter how to use a bedside asthma action plan.