Music in OR

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I've read that surgeons often play music in the OR, but not sure if this is the norm or exception.

Who chooses the music? Does the anesthesiologist have veto power?

Thanks for anyone's experience with this.

(I'm a med student & rocker considering anesthesiology.)
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Glad you agree.

(Kidding. It's not a deciding factor. Just a light question on something I was curious about.)
 
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Surgeons picked in my residency, circulating RNs or surgeons picked (with heavy whole-room input) in my fellowship. But honestly, anyone who has a strong preference is welcome to voice it and it will often be successful. I love having music in the OR. Also at least in training in anesthesia, you’re the first one in the OR so you can turn on your choice of tunes when you get there- and unless everyone else hates it, they’re likely to go with it.
 
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It depends on the room and specialty. If the surgeon brings their own boombox/playlist, they usually get dibs on what’s playing.

A few examples of what I’ve noticed where I work is usually:
General Surgery: often prefer no music or anything as long as the volume is low
Ortho: hip hop or electronic music
Vascular: classic rock
GYN: current pop hits
Cardiac: Jazz/easy listening

If it’s up to me, I usually play 80s/90s pop hits which is most likely to make everyone in the room happy or at least able to tolerate it. You have to remember that there are usually many people in the room including scrub, circulator, residents, etc. Playing death metal or the like would likely be annoying somebody.
 
I might be in the minority, but I do enjoy a quiet operating room. I will at least definitely make sure music is off during induction and emergence (not sure why the OR has to sound like a night club as soon as emergence occurs- shows a lack of appreciation or understanding or respect for us, the patient, and process in general).
 
Have a few hardcore gangster rappers, want uncensored versions. Nurses usually can’t tolerate and can’t complain. Sometimes watching them cringe is kinda fun.
 
I appreciate that there are a bunch of different preferences because bouncing between different ORs on different days usually leads to a huge variety of music and a nice change-up.

I agree though, I always make them turn off the music for induction and wake-up.
 
The surgeon owns the OR. The surgeon is ultimately responsible for the patient. The surgeon is the captain of the ship. The surgeon chooses the music.
 
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sevoflurane said:
Ya they do. One of my Neurosurg rockstars likes TOOL for 3am cranis.
Actually think it helps us all with some auditory caffeine.
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Really? I mean it’s better than ‘Today’s Hits Radio’ but only marginally.
 
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sevoflurane said:
Ya they do. One of my Neurosurg rockstars likes TOOL for 3am cranis.
Actually think it helps us all with some auditory caffeine.
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One of our peds neurosurgeons basically only listens to Tool and electronic, which is fine with me compared to some of the other garbage music we have to tolerate.
 
Merely said:
The surgeon owns the OR. The surgeon is ultimately responsible for the patient. The surgeon is the captain of the ship. The surgeon chooses the music.
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Drink much koolaid? 😉
 
Perhaps my place is the exception, but the majority of the time I am in charge of the music. Sometimes the nurses play a radio station, but otherwise it’s either my music or nothing.
 
AnesThrowaway said:
A few examples of what I’ve noticed where I work is usually:
General Surgery: often prefer no music or anything as long as the volume is low
Ortho: hip hop or electronic music
Vascular: classic rock
GYN: current pop hits
Cardiac: Jazz/easy listening
Click to expand...

GS: too worried about getting cases to worry about music

Ortho: always think they’re cool, especially when the young bro hardware reps are around

Vascular: cranky surgeons trained by older cranky surgeons who take care of old cranky patients

Gyn: mostly women who tend to not like rap or rock

Cardiac: mostly true, again old dudes trained by other old dudes. My guy is the exception. I usually run the music in my hearts and we happen to like the same genre, although I believe some of it is him trying to be cool...awkwardly
 
SaltyDog said:
Every time there's some pop/easy listening crap playing in the ortho room, I ask the surgeon if I mistakenly walked into the GYN room.
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So I was playing a playlist on my phone once. The ENT looks over to me and asks, “Are you a lesbian trapped in a man’s body because I feel like I’m at Lilith Fair?” Okay fair enough. What can I say.

We also have a plastics guy who covers all the trauma. He likes Escape on Sirius/XM. At 2am.
 
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nimbus said:
So I was playing a playlist on my phone once. The ENT looks over to me and asks, “Are you a lesbian trapped in a man’s body because I feel like I’m at Lilith Fair?” Okay fair enough. What can I say.

We have a plastics guy who covers all the trauma. He likes Escape on Sirius/XM. At 2am.
Click to expand...
Ain’t nothing wrong with Alanis Morrissette
 
nimbus said:
So I was playing a playlist on my phone once. The ENT looks over to me and asks, “Are you a lesbian trapped in a man’s body because I feel like I’m at Lilith Fair?” Okay fair enough. What can I say.

We have a plastics guy who covers all the trauma. He likes Escape on Sirius/XM. At 2am.
Click to expand...

I warned you about playing The Vagina Monologues in the the OR.
 
nolagas said:
I think Lilith Fair was more like Natalie Merchant, Sarah McLachlan, Indigo Girls... I guess Alanis Morissette is close enough.
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Natalie has one of the best voices I’ve ever heard. Music is a bit soft though. And I like soft at times.
 
DM27 said:
We had one surgeon who used to put the bed control in a sterile ultrasound probe cover and control it himself during a case. I enjoyed those. He also wasn’t an idiot about controlling it either.
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Smart (wo)man.
 
DM27 said:
We had one surgeon who used to put the bed control in a sterile ultrasound probe cover and control it himself during a case. I enjoyed those. He also wasn’t an idiot about controlling it either.
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If I had a dollar for every ortho doc who couldn't figure out beach chair I would have an island and a coconut filled with rum.
 
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As a Psychiatrist in a GI procedure room type suite (doing ECT), I let the patients pick. They spent more time awake in the room than sedated. Patient centered care, and didn't have to worry about staff squabbles. Actually got exposed to music I wouldn't have otherwise listened to.
 
Surgeon picks the music. If you are friends with said surgeon (lol depending on how good of friends u are) perhaps u can “persuade” a certain genre of music...i am anesthesia but also do pain procedures so i have experienced both sides of the fence. I happen to enjoy nearly all types of music as long as something is on (but not too loud or during induction/emergence bc we need to be able to listen to the monitors).

One exception: my husband is a surgeon and listens to...wait for it...wait for it...CLASSICAL music in the OR. :bang:
And lights off during all his cases. Some of which can take 3-4 hrs.
Its a good thing we dont work together bc i’d fall asleep along with the patient if i were in his cases.
 
DM27 said:
The music will vary a lot and the surgeons often control it unless someone else has a strong preference.

One correlation you will likely notice is there is a fairly consistent positive correlation between tolerance of music and sound and overall skill/competence.
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Also, tolerance of anything really. Incompetent surgeons often end up being dinguses about everything.
 
I worked with old general surgeon one day, as soon as I turned the music on he asked for it to be off. He doesn't like any music and it's like a funeral. He also said he doesn't believe in using local, at all. I had to talk him into letting me do a block for one of his cases... For the patient's sake
 
One of our OR suites doesn't have built-in speakers. When I'm there, I bring in my Bluetooth speaker and control the tunes with my phone. It's been a game changer.
 
Marginally? I am guessing you are not a musician... so me telling you that Danny Carey is plying 3 different time signatures at the same time likely means nothing to you. 🙂

The musicianship of these guys has always blown me away... Danny is an animal on this latest album (and all others).
 
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