Ashley Bartholomew’s road to a career in perioperative nursing started out in an unusual place: as a dental technician while serving in the U.S. Air Force at just 18 years of age. While stationed overseas in Japan, she got to scrub in and assist in oral surgeries at the Navy hospital. “This inspired me to want to be an operating room nurse,” she says.
After her discharge, Ashley went to nursing school and became an LPN. “I figured if I didn’t like nursing, at least I only wasted one year,” she says. “But I loved it so I got my RN and then my BSN in 2016.”
Ashley is currently studying for her MSN in education and leadership and will finish that later this year.
In addition to her role as the OR Circulator at OrthoVirginia in Alexandria, Virginia, Ashley is also the director of nursing at GreenLink Strategies, a medical device strategic reprocessing company.
“Our goal is to educate OR staff on what items can be recycled,” she explains. “If you think of what we’re recapturing in the OR now as far as what’s reusable and recyclable, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
As the OR Circulator, Ashley helps set up the operating room and make sure everything is sterile and all systems are “go” before surgeries take place. She also interviews patients right before they’re brought into the OR.
“This keeps me in a patient-facing role, while my role at Greenlink is more business-focused,” she says. “It’s nice being in both worlds.”
One of the most rewarding aspects of being a perioperative nurse for Ashely is being an advocate for patients when they’re at their most vulnerable moment.
“When patients are about to be wheeled into the operating room and cut open in front of a room full of strangers, I tell them that I’m going to be there with them and speak up for them,” she says. “But there’s also a lot of pressure because we have to make quick decisions that can have significant consequences.”
Ashley also enjoys collaborating with surgeons, anesthesiologists and other OR staff.
“I work side by side with some of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met,” she says. “It’s so cool getting to spend the majority of my work hours with people like this.”
Ashley’s husband is on active duty in the Air Force so they move every other year. So far, she has worked in a dozen different states and hospitals. There are pros and cons to this kind of lifestyle.
“Always being the new girl in the OR is real fun – do you detect the sarcasm?” says Ashley.
“And I used to be jealous of nurses who worked in the same hospital or ASC for 15 or 20 years, which is something I’ve never experienced. But now I see the positive side of this: that I’ve been able to work in so many different environments, from a tiny 54-bed hospital to a Level 1 trauma center and everything in between. This has really broadened my knowledge and experience.”
One of Ashley’s career highlights is teaching Periop 101, which she says broadened her perspective on perioperative nursing.
“And I really love to teach,” she says. “I’m also an advocate for nursing – I like to be involved in things like advocating for surgical smoke legislation.”
Specializing in orthopedics is rewarding for Ashley because these procedures can change patients’ lives.
“We’re restoring a patient’s ability to play sports again, or get down on the ground and play with their grandchildren, or just go for a walk with a neighbor,” she says. “When we do a total hip replacement, I know it’s going to give the patient a higher quality of life.”
Ashley has gone on several medical mission trips, including week-long trips to Guatemala the past two years to perform total joint surgeries with a team of orthopedic surgeons. On one trip, she and her team saw 78 patients in just four days.
“I was hesitant at first – I had a lot of questions and I was curious about the conditions and the risks associated with a total joint surgery overseas,” Ashley says. “I was pleased to learn that patients’ follow-up care was provided by a continual rotation of orthopedic surgeons who come to the same location, and that the surgical infection rates are surprisingly low.”
Going on surgical mission trips is a humbling experience for Ashley, who feels privileged to be “a small part of something so life-changing for so many people. We live in a country with so much and going to Guatemala makes every worry I have seem very small.”
Ashley says she’d like to go on a surgical mission trip ever year, but raising three boys in elementary school, working two jobs and finishing her education makes the logistics challenging in her current life stage.
As far as hobbies and interests go, most of Ashley’s time outside of work is devoted to her boys’ extra-curricular activities, such as Little League baseball. She and her husband also enjoy traveling and exploring all the new places they move to. They are especially enjoying hiking and visiting all the historic sites and museums in the Washington, D.C., area.
“Sometimes other people in the OR will talk about how chaotic it can be,” Ashley says. “I just laugh and say, ‘You want to see chaos? I’ve got three little minions at home!”
Professional Spotlight Nomination
