Any new grads start in OR?

happylush · Jun 17, 2004

Hello. What would you OR nurses recommend to a new grad that wants to get into surgery? I have been interested in or nursing for quite some time now, and just graduated rn school, I have done plenty of job shadowing and am even going back for my bachelors in the thought that if I want to go for crna someday the option will be there. I hear its really hard to get in without any experience, so what would you recommend a person do to get " in". Thanks

giaryan · Jun 21, 2004

Many places do not want to take new graduates into the OR....the time and effort for orientation is huge....However, many places cannot help but eduate their own nurses as the pool of experienced is drying up as OR nurses age and a perioperative concentration is not really included in RN curriculum.... Contact ALL the hospitals in your area and inquire about training.....check with community colleges and 4 year colleges in your are as well.....some are beginning to offer certificates in Perioperative Nursing...it would be a major commitment of time. Good Luck.

Hello. What would you OR nurses recommend to a new grad that wants to get into surgery? I have been interested in or nursing for quite some time now, and just graduated rn school, I have done plenty of job shadowing and am even going back for my bachelors in the thought that if I want to go for crna someday the option will be there. I hear its really hard to get in without any experience, so what would you recommend a person do to get " in". Thanks

EricG · Jul 20, 2004

I graduate Aug 16th and just last week interviewed for, was offered, and graciously accepted a position in the OR. It is a 6 month orientation approved by AORN called Perioperative 101. They swore to me I would not be in the "numbers" until I completed orientation. Wish me luck! It's exactly what I wanted! A university-affiliated trauma one hospital!

carcha · Jul 21, 2004

I really envy u Eric, I want to do that course, it sounds great. I loved my peri-operative course and dident want it to finish. Its great that your going to be one of the numbers and I feel any new grad should be in that situation as it gives them an opportunity to get the feel of what a perioperative nurse should be without the pressure. My heart goes out to Christalynn, no one and I mean no one should go home crying, thats just so awful. I work with a lot of grads in my position and can tell when one is not happy, its not hard, that look of excitment they had when they first came goes. Usually I gently ask if theres a problem and usually the problem is related to the grad feeling "useless", in this enviroment which is so totally alien to them. I tell all of them, just be patient, rome wasent built in a day. I find if they can hold out within 3 months they begin to settle and within 6 feel useful. After a year they tell me what to do!, but hey thats life, the old giving way to the new. So Christalynn dry your eyes and wait a bit your going to love it, I promise.

CardioTrans, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2004

To the poster who asked if 1 yr of Med-Surg would be helpful before going to the OR.......... that would be a big NO. OR nursing is so completely different than anything anywhere else in the hospital. OR nurses have tons of instruments to learn, physician preferences for cases, how to set the room up for the physicians, the supplies, the equipment (hardly any of which is used on the floors). I worked in the OR for 2 or so yrs. Lets put it this way, any OR nurse can go to a floor and function. Not all floor nurses can function in an OR. If you work in an OR, you can go to the floor and take care of a patient needs. (nursing that is learned in school). If you work on the floor, you cant come to the OR and take over cases. Never seen a cell saver used on the floors, and do they really know what an army/navy is, or a 36cm bipolar with a +5 neck is? Lets not forget Debakey's, Metz, Babcocks, Kelly's, Haney's etc.

I loved working in the OR, you got to know the surgeons well, most of them were talkative in a polite way, and some of course were not. I now work in an OB unit where our new hospital will have LDRP's and we will do our own sections...... which then I will get to scrub or circulate for those.

OR is frustrating at times, and if the staff is constantly bickering, then it is no place to be. That only adds fuel to the fire of working long cases.

Best of luck to all of you.

angel03 · Jul 30, 2004

I am also a new RN grad hired in the OR. I am currently taking the OR class my facility offers. I feel very overwhelmed. I will start working on different cases with my preceptor next week. I would appreciate any tips anyone can offer. Everyone keeps informing me all this new information will come together in a year. I hope so....
Thanks.

We were all new nurses at one time .....no one was born on a bovie.......BUT.....one must prove herself......you must earn your stripes with the staff and the docs.....be persistant......listen..... (you will get the OR ears).....don't carry on conversations.... PAY ATTENTION.....prepare for your day read the docs preference cards......when in Rome.....you know the saying.......It takes a good 2 years to actually feel comfortable in the OR.......Listen to your peers......each one of them has something to offer.....some practices you will agree with and practice some you will not .....when you are off your orientation you can develop your own style....ALWAYS,ALWAYS remember your patient is completly dependent upon you to be his advocate.....the patient is always your #1 .........the patient comes first!!!!!!!!!

SOCALRACERX911_RN · Jul 30, 2004

Its good to see that there are places accepting new grad in the OR. As a new grad 2yrs ago, I was turned down by every OR I approached. They simply said that I needed to do "floor" nursing for 1 year, despite my military experience and OR background as a Surgical Orthopedic Tech, go figure. So I did, I was accepted into an ER new grad instead, I love it but I still have interests in doing OR. Can an OR manager out there tell me why there are hospitals out there who dont accept new grads. Could it be that veteran OR nurses feel that one must pay their dues in med surg before they can join their elite group, which I think is a bunch of &^%%&

carcha · Jul 31, 2004

Libmi, I am appalled at what you wrote. What give u the right to decide your failure to get into an OR has anything to do with people like me who have worked in the OR for years. Usually when a nurse applys for a job the first I would know of it is when he/she is coming through the door. I have nor want any imput into grad applications. For your information I want to see as many new grads as possible come into the OR. If not in another 10 years the OR will be run by non nursing staff and our patients will suffer. So wipe the chip off your shoulder, try again and realise people like me in the "elite group" whatever that means, dont give a rats *** that your a grad, just that your a nurse, interested and willing to learn from the "veterans". Awaiting apology.

stevierae · Aug 1, 2004

I am a new RN grad that just started working in the OR in October. I am feeling overwhelmed and sometimes go home crying. I was just wondering how other people felt after starting in the OR. Did it take a while to get adjusted to the swing of things? Thanks for any input.
Christine

I feel so sad for you, Chrislynn. I promise you, it will get better! I went to OR tech school in the Navy, then worked ER for 3 years as a corpsman, then went to nursing school when I got out. So, I hadn't been in an OR for 5 years, and I was rusty, but I went straight into the OR after graduation.

For a good year, I literally SHOOK and my heart pounded when I stood at the scrub sink every day to relieve the day scrub at 3 o'clock, (couldn't circualte until I got my board results back and verified that I had passed, and that was 3 months later) and I just KNEW they were in there talking about me and saying, "Oh, man, do we have to have HER in our room?" Maybe they were, for all I know! We had windows in the OR rooms overlooking the scrub sinks, and occasionally they would look out.

But, within the year, I could scrub and circulate pretty much anything that was thrown my way--and, yes, it was "see one, do one teach one," a lot of trauma, and a LOT of stuff learned for the first time on call! And those peole got tp be like family. I stayed there 9 years, until I moved to Oregon, and I still miss them and keep in touch with some.

You will be fine. Just listen, watch and learn. Be flexible and remember that there are MANY different "right" ways of doing things--not just one; not just what one circulator does; not necessarily the way you saw it done or heard it was done in school.

Eventually you will find routines and techniques that work for YOU , and will continue to modify those routines and techniques over the years. I STILL change or modify ways I've done things for years, when I see how some young whiz kid 23 year old tech does it, and I am not afraid to compliment him and tell him his way is a better way than my old tried and true one! One thing about the OR--you NEVER stop learning. Check back with us after you have been there a year and let us know how it's going.

SOCALRACERX911_RN · Aug 3, 2004

Libmi, I am appalled at what you wrote. What give u the right to decide your failure to get into an OR has anything to do with people like me who have worked in the OR for years. Usually when a nurse applys for a job the first I would know of it is when he/she is coming through the door. I have nor want any imput into grad applications. For your information I want to see as many new grads as possible come into the OR. If not in another 10 years the OR will be run by non nursing staff and our patients will suffer. So wipe the chip off your shoulder, try again and realise people like me in the "elite group" whatever that means, dont give a rats *** that your a grad, just that your a nurse, interested and willing to learn from the "veterans". Awaiting apology.

Dearest Cocoracha,

First of all you have to jump off that high horse of yours, take a parachute with you cause you will need it. I didnt want to go this route....but I'll say it anyways.....2nd of all elite group of nurses your not, 3rd lets give credit where it is due, the or tech does most of the work in the OR. your statements are confusing and contradictary (" you dont want any input into grad applications but yet you say you want as many grads as possible). 4th, I think its veterans like you who has a chip on your shoulder and I would of hated to have you as a preceptor, you sound like the person that would eat your young. Failure?......NOT. I have excelled as ER/Trauma nurse....thank you. Yes I was interested and willing to learn but I didnt get in because I wasn't given a chance. Its great that new grads are being accepted in the OR now, on with the new thinking and out with the old. I am not bitter about being accepted in the OR at the time. You know that saying that "things happen for a reason" I just didnt understand the OR nurses (the I spoke to, of course) rationalization for getting floor nursing experience first when the ER accepted new grads without floor nursing. I will apologize......NOT!! I will apologize for not responding to you immediately and only if Ralph Nader wins the presidential election. Hope to hear from you soon

mare-mare · Aug 4, 2004

Boy, am I lucky!

The very first day I was an RN I worked in the OR, and I love it! I can't imagine working anyplace else. I do work at a smaller hospital and have the blessing of doing everything and being fully supported while learning it all. I've been in the OR a little over 2 years and encourage anyone who might want to be there to try it.

I do have to say that it is probably one of the hardest places to work, simply because there is so much "stuff" to know and you are truly in a life-or-death situation at times. I often go home feeling like a mechanic, but I am also so fullfilled to know that I really did impact someones life.

Now in answer to the above thread, who do you think you are to say what you have about OR nurses? It sounds like you have never been IN an OR let alone worked in one! Nurses have been know to eat their young, but all new nurses have the responsibility to change that and move on, we can't change the past.

PS wanna know one sure way to really anger an OR nurse? Tell us we don't do anything... you obviously have no idea what it is we do!

Marvie · Aug 31, 2004

Wow, how quickly this conversation turned. First of all, I would like to address one thing- the OR techs do NOT do all the work in the OR. In the or where I work, it's the RN who opens the room, prepares the equiptment, has the bed correct, gets things needed for the case. The tech's scrub in and set up their table then often break to go take a break. While they do work during the actual case, the RN is also working, often calling for additional supplies, doing the ton of paperwork needed, giving saline, hanging meds, checking equiptment, checking the pt, etc..... So whoever it was that commented, you might want to actually go into the OR before ticking the OR RN's off.