My Specialty
Surgical Nursing Director, Taylor Griffith, Keck Medicine of USC
Developing innovative surgical techniques for high-acuity patients
Taylor Griffith, RN, MSN, CNOR
Director, Nursing – Perioperative Services, Main OR
Keck Medicine of USC Los Angeles
What is your nursing origin story?
My mom’s a nurse, so I’m following her example. Once I started nursing school, I took a nursing extern position at Fresno Community Hospital OR, and basically learned to be a scrub tech on the job. In my first year of nursing school, my buddies invited me to observe some open heart surgeries, and I realized that I only wanted to work in the operating room.
Did leadership come naturally to you?
I think so. I liked being that voice in the room with the people making the bigger decisions. I wanted to take patient advocacy in a different direction.
However, I really like the idea of leading elbow to elbow, not from above. I have done every job in periop, and there is nothing I am above doing.
Today, I think I’m one of the longest-serving periop leaders at Keck. I’ve been charge, manager, and director, and I’m now taking over the pre- and postoperative areas as well.
What service lines do you oversee?
We have 24 operating rooms, and we’re currently constructing six more. Previously, I was leading about 200 employees, and I’ve now added another 100.
I always say we have a little something for everybody: We do open heart, craniotomy, endovascular, general surgery, gynecology, and spinal surgery. We run four or five spine rooms per day. We also do a lot of combination surgeries, like vascular with spine, urology, or gynecology, sometimes with cardiac on standby.
On average, we do 45 to 50 cases a day, most an average of six hours. We take care of many really sick patients, high acuity with multiple comorbidities.
How have newer technologies changed your work and the field in general?
Just when you think you’ve seen at all and know it all, there’s some cool new thing coming out. We get to write the playbook for it.
We do a lot of robotics: We just purchased two da Vinci 5 robotic surgical systems, and we also have three of the da Vinci Xi models. Our robotics program is growing to include thoracic, urology, hepatobiliary, gynecology, and kidney transplants using the robot.
I’ve also seen a demo of how 3D modeling is going to be used for things like endovascular surgical repairs. Imagine a surgeon being able to see a 3D model of someone’s aorta and where it needs to be repaired.
I don’t think anything will ever replace a great provider with clinical expertise, but these technologies are incredibly cool.
Can you give us a snapshot of a patient success story?
We participated in a clinical study using a cadaveric bladder transplant for a patient with bladder cancer, literally replacing their bladder with one from a donor. Our teams were in there working out the kinks in how this could be performed most successfully.
My team that volunteered to assist was instrumental in moving this innovation forward. What really gave me so much joy was seeing the surgeons appreciating their teams so deeply. That’s what I went into leadership for.
What characteristics do you look for in nurses for your team?
I look for an inquisitive mind and excitement about being a surgical nurse. I also like to see a nurse who’s not afraid to get their hands dirty. There’s really no hierarchy in periop. Surgery is a team sport, and nobody should be above picking up a piece of trash, putting their instruments away, or walking a patient to the bathroom. This adds up to a positive experience for our patients.
I have personally been a surgical patient several times at Keck, and I could not have felt more comfortable, more taken care of, or more assured that I would be protected.
What professional goals would you still like to pursue?
I was really proud of myself for going back to school and getting my master’s. What I want to focus on in the next few years is mastering preop and PACU, and expanding what has worked for me in the interop space to the pre- and postop areas. I want to master some new skills.
I would also like to get into something on the humanitarian side, to take my surgical skills and pivot them to some meaningful volunteerism.
KEITH CARLSON, RN, BSN, NC-BC, has worked as a nurse since 1996 and offers expert professional coaching at www.nursekeith.com..
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