OR ORIENTATION

Hi
We have a 6 month orientation program. An RN with experience is assigned as that persons preceptor and they are responsible to provide the new person with as much experience as possible. A basic unit orientation is given--where the essentials are--first. Then the actual scrubbing/circulating begins--beginning with basic general & gyn surgery (breast bx/D&C/hernias). They stay with this specialty until the orientee feels comfortable & then they move on to the next specialty (advancing in difficulty). Sometimes we have to jump around alittle between specialties depending on the case load. They are given as much time in each specialty as needed. If they are advancing to a specialty that needs the "expert nurse" then the core leader for that specialty takes over for any cases that the orientee requires help. We don't have any tests. The preceptor assigns the cases they do & the orientee is expected to keep a log book of what they have done. Initally we have weekly meetings (preceptor/orientee), then the meetings are as needed. In the last 2-3 weeks, the preceptor/orientee take cases where one can circulate and one can scrub--so that the orientee works independantly to run a room or scrub a case by themselves. Hope this helps you out! I think I hit everything

In our OR we have a didactic program taught by our nurse educator. It consists of a few weeks of classroom and observation. We use Alexander's Care of the Patient in Surgery as a guideline along with outlines put together with our instructor. We cover the first section in Alexanders. We then scrub for a few months with the technicians. We are usually assigned to one for a few weeks, then switch specialties. There is usually a written test on the classrom work at about this time. We then start circulating the different specialties. As we are a large general hospital and Level I Trauma Center, the orientation program is about 6 - 9 months.

hi there from Canada!! I started in the OR in June 2000. I had zero OR experience. I did have surgical experience, which I believe helped alot. I was buddied with our clinician ( a new position, I was the test flight) We spent alot of time initially watching, explaining, doing homework based on what I had learned that day. We also went through trays, toured CPD, the work room. I then began to second scrub, help pick cases, etc... We started in general, gyne, cv, ortho, ent, uro, and then eyes. On days when my preceptor could not be with me, I was generally buddied up with the nurse who heads up the service I was in, or other staff prn. I would get together on occasion to discuss things with my preceptor. This went on for 6 months. I also took call, as a third person, and did a week of eve. shifts, also as the third. Before proceding to the next area, I always had to be able to scrub the cases alone, this included things from carpal tunnel releases to total joints, and triple A's. There was so much to learn!! I think my 6 month orientation was excellent. I occ. was used as staff, only where comfortable, only when we were short staffed. I have been taking the OR course, which lucky for me started for the first time at our community college, at about the same time as I was orientating! Even more lucky, my preceptor is the instructor. In discussing the orientation with my preceptor, and with management, we drcided a few things, areas to improve. Perhaps next time they would skip total joints. They take a long time to learn, and you don't need them to take call, so tey could wait. Also continuity. As I said, there were times after the first couple of months, where I was just buddied with a nurse in the room. Everybody teaches different, does things different, and nobody knows where you are at with your learning. This could prove frustrating at times. I suggested that the preceptor not orientate more thean one person at a time. When I started, two others quickly followed, and this cheated us all out of the time we needed with her. And, if it is at all possible, do not pull somebody from there cv orintation to go work as staff in say, general surg. because you are short of staff. If you must, make the orientation period longer. We three girls found that we were used as staff prn, but our orintation period stayed the same. So in some areas, we may have been short changed. Hope this helps some mud

[This message has been edited by mud (edited March 12, 2001).]

I work in an OR with 16 rooms so we are wide open most days... Our orientation requires that we rotate through the services including Ortho, Neuro, Open Heart, Urology, General and GYN, we also go through the Recovery Room, Holding area and our Central Processing dept... the services we spend 2-3 weeks in then a few days in RR, Holding and CIPD. We are assigned a preceptor for each service with checklist to be completed by us and the preceptor. We also have tests on things like Asepsis, Counts, the Steris, Autoclaves, and general disinfection...We always have the opportunity to talk with the Educ Director to let her know what we feel we are missing or what we are needing and she comes around and seeks us out to see if we are doing ok and feeling comfortable... Does this help at all??? LOL Good luck

A periop program requires 6 months. I have taught this class. If you are interested in someone implementating a program in your hospital please contact me.