PERiOPERATIVE NURSiNG

[TOTALLY CONFUSED]

hello everyone,

let me start off by saying THANK YOU for taking the time to read this. I am 18 years old, soon to be 19 in October. I'm just freshly graduated out of high school, and as my user name says it, IM TOTALLY CONFUSED as far as HOW to begin doing what i want to do in the perioperative nursing field. I am the first out of all the grandchildren to graduate high school. and seeing as how I am, that means there is nobody before me that has gone to college and as a result i feel lost and helpless with no guidance. As a child, my career choices were constantly changing, as do most children's as they grow and find new interests. I can remember exactly when i chose what i wanted to do. I was about 10 or so i'd say, and my mother always had TRAUMA: LIFE IN THE ER on the T.V. Naturally, as any child would, i began watching with curiosity, but much to my mothers amazement I never looked away from any graphic scenes nor did i comment on how gross they were. I just simply watched, completely content. From this time on, my mother used to tell people that I was going to be a doctor. She encouraged me to go onto this path as well, telling me that not everyone can do that, and if i can handle the graphic scenes then i should be a doctor. Gears began spinning in my head, and I began watching more and more medical television. Before i knew it, Discovery Health Channel was on 24/7 and I couldn't get enough of it. Of course, all my life I thought people who couldn't watch surgery, or dissect frogs or anything just had weak stomachs. I'm finding out now that enjoying this type of thing isn't considered "the norm", and it's not very common among young people. When I was in 10th grade, i was made to take this assessment online. This assessment was a series of questions, and the outcome was a long list of careers that were considered "suitable" for you based on your answer to the questions. You were made to choose one of the careers and do a presentation on it. THOSE TESTS ARE SOOOOO INACCURATE. No where on my list did it say "nurse" or anything along the lines of working in the medical field, so i chose "orthodontist" and did that. During the time of presentations, one of my friends presented the topic "surgeons". During her presentation she went on explaining various careers that were related to surgeons, and thats when i had heard the term SURGICAL NURSE for the first time. My interest flared and i did some research. Much to my surprise, at the end of my research i was telling myself that this is what i wanted to do. Sadly to say, my search didn't go much further because senior year was just REALLY HARD and there was no time to even think about it. They say class of '08 had it worst, and coming from a person who's jumped through all the hoops they made us jump through, i can honestly say that it wasn't easy and now i feel as though i can do ANYTHING. So I sit here today, looking up endless information about nursing on my computer and I just can't sort it all out. It's all jumbled; so I'm hoping that this website will help me get direction from people who are already doing what I want to pursue. From all of the readings I have found, I am pretty sure that I want to be a SCRUB NURSE, but that's also why I am here to ask questions. What I would like to know is...

--What is the criteria for High School Education?--

What I mean by this question is simply "what classes should have been completed in high school?" The reason I am asking that is because I know that certain career fields require you to get specified education that the district doesn't require for a graduating and receiving your diploma, such as Psychiatry or Physics. If there are any classes that I must have a credit for that were not completed in my high school years, I plan to complete them in a community college.

--Where do I start?--

i know multiple people who have started their nursing careers through a program called "Certified Nursing Assistant Class" which is held in a nursing home; but i don't want to be a nursing assistant, and I'm wondering if there's a way to skip that step. Do i start in community college, or would it be better just to find a nursing school and begin training there?

--What exactly is "Nursing School?"--

At this school do you just receive training on how to become a nurse [like changing I.V's and filling out charts correctly], or can you actually take the classes you must take to receive the degree's necessary for the job [such as medical terminology and things like that]

--What degree's do i have to get, and what are the credentials for receiving these degrees?--

in other words, what classes do i have to take to achieve becoming a scrub nurse and are they offered in nursing school? and what degrees as far as minors, majors and masters are required?

i have tons of other questions, but before i start getting myself and everyone reading this confused, i think i'll wait until i get responses on these questions. It would be really helpful if someone who was a scrub nurse in ANY AREA OF SURGERY could give me a run down on where and how they started; I'd appreciate it a great deal. Thank you for your time.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

hi! as a part time job (this was back in the 60s) my father worked for a scrap yard. today the equivalent would be similar to a junk yard and recycling center. he brought home piles of medical journals that were being discarded that he found by the paper bailers for my mother to read. i was looking at horrid pictures of deformed people in plastic surgery journals all through my childhood. and, i had a fascination with embalming for some odd reason and was constantly looking for information about it. and you felt lost and helpless about what career direction to take? ha! ha! i actually didn't end up in nursing school until i was 24 and that is after studying accounting and seriously considering medical school.

i will answer all your questions, but need to do it in a different order than you asked them in so that it has continuity.

you need a high school diploma. it helps if you took algebra and chemistry in high school. if you didn't that can be remedied in college by taking classes in these subjects if it is necessary. it will depend on what kind of nursing program you want to end up taking and what the nursing school requires.

one of the best informative websites on the careers in nursing is http://www.discovernursing.com/. there is a lot to read on this site so you need to spend time reading and exploring the many web pages on the site. it will tell you about the different types of nurses and the education required for each. there are 2 types of licensed nurses in the u.s.: lpns and rns. they must take and pass either a nclex-pn or nclex-rn test in order to get a license. just as you can't legally drive without a driver's license, you can't work as an lpn or rn without a license. cna's (certified nursing assistants) are trained nursing assistants who have passed a state approved (approved by the federal government) test and they are official listed on a state maintained registry--this is mandated by a federal law that was brought about to improve conditions of care in nursing homes. some nursing schools recognize that cna training is similar to the skills taught in the first semester of nursing school, so they sometimes make getting a cna a requirement of nursing school so their instructors can spend time teaching other nursing topics.

a good website to get information about college admission is on the website on the company that writes the sat exam--they have great information there about preparing for college and applying to colleges. http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/action/seniors.html everyone who becomes a nurse must first go to a state board approved general nursing program. many of these programs are within colleges, so you will often have to apply and be accepted as a student of the college first before applying to the nursing program. every state board has a website and has a list of the approved nursing schools in their state posted on it. this is the list of nursing schools in your state: https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/hpqa1/hps6/nursing/documents/approved_nursing_schools.doc . you should contact the individual schools or go to their websites for specific information about the nursing programs and admission requirements. depending on the school and nursing program you go to will depend on whether you end up with a diploma, aa or adn degree or a bsn. these are honors conferred upon you by the individual schools. they are all approved by the state board to qualify you to take the nclex exam if you finish their nursing course of study.

within the working world of nurses there are many areas you can specialize and work in. on the discover nursing website is a page with links to these special areas:

• http://www.discovernursing.com/nursing-careers - list of nursing specialties
  • http://www.discovernursing.com/jnj-specialtyid_118-dsc-specialty_detail.aspx - perioperative nursing

the perioperative period refers to immediately before, during and immediately after surgery. i want to tell you about scrub nurses. the scrub nurse works in the surgical field with the surgeon in the operating room assisting the surgeon by passing him sterile instruments and supplies. scrub nurses are most often lpns. the other nurse on the operating room team is the circulating nurse who is generally an rn. the circulating nurse works outside the sterile field, monitors those inside the sterile field to assure sterility is not broken and is the liaison who passes things to and from the sterile to the nonsterile area as well as has ultimate responsibility for the needle, sponge and instrument counts. in some cases, scrub nurses are being replaced by pas (physician assistants) who are either employees of the surgeons or the hospitals or surgical assistants. pas are trained and licensed to do more than a scrub nurse. they can actually work in the surgical wound with the surgeon, manipulate living tissues and suture. some states have a licensed category for a healthcare professional called a surgical assistant and the community colleges in their state have training programs for this career. you would get a job as a scrub nurse by (1) going to lpn school (2) passing the nclex-pn and getting your lpn license (3) apply for and get a job in a hospital or. the or department will then train you to do scrub nurse duties.

lpns do not learn how to change ivs as part of their basic training in many states until after they graduate, take extra training and get special certification in iv therapy if the state they practice in allow this. iv therapy is a skill that is part of what an rn learns.