[cwishes]

I'll be graduating next year as an RN and have been doing a lot of "soul searching" to what type of nursing I want to do and have come to the decision of becoming an OR nurse. Now that that decision has been made, I have a lot of questions that remain unanswered such as the requirements to become an OR nurse. Is it something a new grad can go straight into or does one need to have experience in overall nursing to be considered for the job. Also, what are the main differences between working in the OR of a major hospital and working in same day surgery. Also, are OR nurses in as short of supply as other type of nurses? I'll start off with these question for now but promise to have more later. Thanks much, Chris

[musicalnursynurse]

Congrats on finding where you want to work. Every hospital is different in what they require to work in the OR. I have been with one hospital for a bit over 3years and they are desperate for staff however they only want nurses with previous OR or PACU experience. So my experience doesn't help at all. However I am now working in a bigger hospital with a more in depth orientation of 6 moths (vs. 3) and here we are hiring new grads.
My personal opinion and one of which I share with many other nurses is one needs to gain some experience before jumping into the OR. Work on many of the technical skills such as foleys IV's and assesment. Familiarize yourself with common meds the pre-op and pot op patient. All of these skills are carried over into the OR along with many other things. On top of all that you will become more comfortable withcommunicating with your Dr. deal with craky surgeons better.
Trust me with my experience I am finding it alot to learn, I couldn't imagine doing this as a new grad. All that being said I have seen some OR nurses that started off right in the OR and are doing well, So basically it should be wise to think everything through and find out what type of orientation is offered, have there been new grads come through this OR before (and how were they recieved).
I hope that helps you a bit

[ortess1971]

Excellent post, Musical Nurse, but I'm going to respectfully disagree about the necessity of previous experience before going to the OR. I have seen floor nurses come to the OR and struggle just as much, if not more than a new grad, because they have habits or established ways of doing things. The OR is nothing like the floors so sometimes it's easier to start with a blank canvas, so to speak. Foleys and IV's are easy enough to learn with practice and assessments are drummed into nursing students from day one.(at least at my school they were). Cranky surgeons are few at my hospital and I find sometimes they treat the OR nurses better(I think because they know that we affect how fast their cases move throughout the day ) Still a very informative post though!

[tessa_RN]

At my hospital they want you to go through their year long program as a student and learn to scrub..I was called a student nurse tech..It had nothing to do with the school I was at..During the summer I worked 40hrs/wk then 20hrs/wk while I was in school..I had to take call while I was in school too..Then when you graduate they hire you as a nurse to teach you to circulate...They do hire people from the floor...I would say the majority they have hired in the past 5 years have been through the program..They want you to learn how to scrub first before you circulate...From what Ive heard from a few that have been on the floor it was way stressful for the to learn how to circulate and scrub in 6 months...That is how my hospital is though..Other places can be different..Ive also known a few of my classmates being hired straight into the OR as grads and they are doing great