I am looking to make a career change after almost 4 years in mostly psych nursing. I work in an Emergency psychiatric unit in a large city in California and not inpatient psych, so it's very fast paced and yes…. Crazy! Any who, the truth is I feel as though I am becoming a little burnt out. In Psych nursing you never really get to see patients improve, you just watch patients maintain their diagnosis and move on. On top of that it is a lot of verbal and even physical abuse from patients, which can be exhausting.
I also have some med/surge ED experience and worked in a jail setting for about six months. I was wanting to apply for a class that is offered here at a local community college for prospective ORNs. Do you guys think I have a chance? I need to renew my ACLS, which I'm not worried about. I guess I'm just worried that my IV/catheter skills are not up to par and I'm worried that this will hold me back.
OR nursing has always appealed to me as I love the surgery settings and I and I feel like it would be a great fit. I'm used to seeing patients at a very fast paced rate and I am also used to high stress environments. I would like to get my foot in the door and I basically meet all of the requirements that this program requires. It is one semester long and begin in the Fall of this year.
I am 30 years old, I have BSN and would love to hear any comments or advice anyone could offer.
I've been an OR nurse for 5 years. I have no other nursing experience and I've never placed an IV. I've worked in the OR at 2 level 1 trauma centers and never needed to place an IV. Anesthesia or pre-op put in lines. Not the nurses.
I am moving from PACU to OR. Are you liking OR so far? Did you do PACU for a long time?
I've only done a week in the OR. My transfer was delayed because one of the other PACU nurses was out due to a rather emergent surgery on her neck. After only a week, I'm liking it so far lol I was actually only in PACU for 9 months. Prior to that I was in the ER.
I couldn't see myself there long term. Prior to applying to PACU I was waffling for several weeks between applying to PACU or OR and I knew several nurses in PACU and same day from the ER and they convinced me to apply to PACU. After 6 months I realized it wasn't where I wanted to be so I talked with the OR director and my boss to set up some shadow days to make sure OR was where I actually wanted to be and set up the transfer. I'm actually kind of glad that I did do PACU first though. I learned a lot about the surgeries and such and know pretty much all of the OR staff already with the exception of the scrub techs so that's made it a really smooth transition in that respect. It's still going to be a LOT to learn but that's one of the things I'm loving about it so far.
I was just curious, I have been in PACU a long time and transferring to another hospital for closer commute with the added call required in OR vs PACU. Best of luck!
Thanks! Same to you! I'll have more call with the OR than with PACU but luckily my commute is only 5 minutes and it's not really that much more call...my PACU call was once every 13 weeks and since I was only there 9 months and they waited awhile to put me in the call rotation...lol
SMURP03
3 Posts
I've been an OR nurse for 5 years. I have no other nursing experience and I've never placed an IV. I've worked in the OR at 2 level 1 trauma centers and never needed to place an IV. Anesthesia or pre-op put in lines. Not the nurses.