My progress through residency, midway through

Originally posted in 4/7/2012 Every two weeks or so I am put into a different specialty. Last week I started in GYN. I had worked in GYN a few days during my residency, but that ended a couple of months ago. I was with the nurse who often works with Doc-Zilla. She is tiny, but she's a great nurse, and she knows how to deal with Doc-Zilla as well.
We were working with a surgeon who can be difficult, especially for new people. She helped me get going on the first case, then left the room to let me do the circulating. The case went well and I ended up starting the next case pretty much on my own. At 3 pm she relieved the scrub, who needed to go to a different room, and I was on my own. She backed me up from a different role.
During orientation we are supposed to have someone backing us up, available for helping us. As we are getting toward the end of our orientation we are expected to become more independent and do more on our own. But we aren't expected to be independent on the first day in a specialty. Well, I did it anyway. I keep being told by my colleagues that I am just about ready to be on my own, but I still have about a month of orientation left. This is good. That means I will be ready to practice on my own by the end of orientation. When I first took this job I knew I wanted to be in the OR, and I thought I knew a bit about being an OR nurse. I am pleased that I am mastering the skills necessary to become an OR nurse.