Vent: My OR experience not enough for grad school

[PediOR]

Ok I just need to vent...I contacted a professor from an acute care PNP program and was told that my almost five years of peds OR experience was "not sufficient for success in the program." The website said 6 months of pediatric inpatient experience was needed. So theoretically, someone with 6 months of peds meg-surg experience would be considered before I would. Seriously!? I feel like I have been exposed to way more in the OR than I ever was on the floor (a year of adult inpatient). I didn't even know what an art line was when I started in OR. If they want critical care experience then ok, fine...but to require acute care experience and then not count OR makes me feel like chopped liver. We do Norwoods, for pete's sake, but you would think from the e-mail I got that I just pick my nose all day.

The irony is that I often answer pages for the surgeons when they're scrubbed in, and a lot of times I end up "triaging" questions from floor nurses. Most of the time my instincts ("trust me, you really don't want to interrupt him with this") are dead on.

[canchaser, BSN, RN]

Well, it seems you need to get out on a med surg floor and work it. Cause in the OR you aren't interpreting labs, seeing and deciding what to call to MD, avoiding and being proactive for a crumping patient, making decisions on the patient as you would be doing as a PNP. You probably are being exposed to a lot of stuff in the OR but not the stuff the school seems to think is necessary for a PNP. Good luck in your endeavors.

[ode2BeRN]

I have been contemplating in going back to school and obtain NP concentrating in Geriatrics. I've been in the OR for 7 years.

I wish you luck!

[Tarshapitt]

Please get some Med-surg experience. You will have a hard time with case studies in class. I have a friend who works in the OR for 10 years. She wants to become an FNP but when I ask her questions related to what she will do if certain things happen to her patient she can't answer. She can't connect the dots. Went straight from school into the OR.

[PediOR]

I actually did work on the floor for a year and a half right out of school, but it was with adults. My SO talked me down after I was so upset...said they probably wanted me to take care of some RSV kids and other typical peds problems that we don't see in surgery. I guess I can see that...I just get tired of people acting like OR nurses aren't "real nurses." One time I was doing ACLS with some ICU nurses and they asked me if I knew where to put the EKG leads.

[PatMac10,RN, RN]

Your experience is valuable and OR nurses are prepared to handle some things that unit based nurses aren't. Having floor based Peds experience will just FINE TUNE your knowledge and treatment processes of things that regularly occur or more commonly happen outside of the OR, that's all. I imagine your OR experience would be valuable in a pediatric surgical practice or Pediatric hospital in the surgical department!

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses

[PediOR]

Thanks, PatMac...that's where I'm hoping to land eventually!