Path to SFA . Three

prelude here
one here
two here
I was so enthralled with the OR that I knew I had to find a way in. I spoke with the surgical techs and found that they had been in a fast track program where they basically had to take five classes, have a certain amount of clinical cases, and then they could test to become certified. I knew what the classes were at the time, but I have forgotten them. The rules were changing anyway, and it would be too late for me to begin. Besides, the program was designed for on the job trained techs who were already scrubbing and I was not. Three of the four techs scrubbing there had been OTJ trained. That sparked my hope.
I hounded the OR manager every week to ask her if there were any positions open. I practically insisted on being the next one hired. I noticed that her trips to the business office to discuss charge issues with me were diminishing. Circulating nurse were showing up in her place. One afternoon as I leaving work, I saw her on the sidewalk ahead of me. Anxious to inquire and remind her one more time that I really wanted to fill that future job opening, I shouted her name and trotted up behind her. I swear I saw her pace quicken, and her head bow a little lower as she tried desperately to avoid me. It was then that I realized that she must have thought that I was more of a stalker than a eager prospective employee.
In the week or two that followed, the OR manager I had worked so hard on to hire me, was leaving the hospital to take a position elsewhere. I was discouraged and a little shocked. What do I do now? Who will be the new manager? Will he or she be receptive to training new scrubs, or would they insist on hiring someone with experience? Would he or she also think I was a stalker? In the back of my mind I wondered if my "stalking" led her to the decision to relocate. In the end I decided I probably didn't have that much power.
As is often the case, a setback ultimately becomes an opportunity. The new OR manager was not a stranger, but rather one of the RN's from the OR. She already knew me and my obsession. While there were no scrub openings yet, she had been working on creating and gaining approval for a unit clerk for the surgery department. Almost one year exactly from my beginnings in the business office, I transfered to surgery as the new Health Unit Coordinator, or HUC for short. It wasn't scrubbing, but it was my big foot in the door and I was overjoyed!