Attn: Nurses hired into the OR within the last 6 months to a year!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Float Pool, MICU, CTICU.

I recently accepted an OR position and will start this month. I'm beyond excited! I'm still trying to find my niche in nursing and I have a good feeling about this. My question is for those who have started within the last 6 months to a year, how are you liking it so far? How is orientation going? I know there is a huge learning curve and I'm prepared to take it one day at a time. Any tips you could suggested from your experience so far? I come with ICU experience.

For anybody who has more than a year of experience in OR, feel free to input as well! I'm curious to see the perspective of those still in or just finishing up the 6-9 month orientation.

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I don't have anything to share, but I'll be starting in OR soon too!!!!! SO NERVOUS!

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Yay, I have a buddy in this lol! We got this!!!

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Yay, I have a buddy in this lol! We got this!!!

Keep in touch with your experiences!!!!!!

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New to the OR. Love the hours, love the sugeries, love the fact that I only have one patient. But hate that I'm not doing or using my "nursing skills". Nurses I have worked with have lost some of their knowledge. Some don't know what an AfB culture is for. Don't get me wrong, it's a good job. I just know I may not stay in this speciality for a long time. Might get some other experience and then come back to the OR. It's very easy to get caught in just doing a task vs thinking about why you are doing it. Lot of surgeries and equipment to learn

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
But hate that I'm not doing or using my "nursing skills". Nurses I have worked with have lost some of their knowledge. Some don't know what an AfB culture is for.

Ouch. Maybe some nursing skills aren't used in the OR, but I definitely use my therapeutic communication skills, my patient assessment skills, and many other nursing skills in the OR. Just like any other specialty, OR nursing has a skill set specific to itself while also using only a portion of the nursing skills learned about in nursing school. It's sad when even those within our own ranks debase OR nursing as a specialty by making it out to be less than one through "skills". BTW, skills are nothing more than the performance of a task. Anyone can take a pulse; it's what one understands about the result that involves the critical thinking. If one does not have the ability to think critically, one quite frankly does not belong in the OR, where patients are extremely vulnerable and relying on the team caring for them to be their advocate.

OP, although I began my OR nursing journey, ahem, many years ago, I have changed specialties within the last few years. My recommendations are to keep a notebook for your own personal reference. My notebook included little details such as this surgeon sits for this procedure or that surgeon likes this particular instrument on every procedure. Also, if you know ahead of time what cases you will be doing the next day, try to get your hands on preference cards. Just like school, learning doesn't just occur during set hours; studying at home will be necessary.

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I like the OR. I know I hate when people ask me something and say but you're a nurse why don't you know; not realizing i work in a speciality and that i don't have exposure to certain things. I guess I expected something different.

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Specializes in CVOR.

I just got accepted into a perioperative 101 program that starts the end of this month! I am very excited. I have been a nurse for 6 years and have worked in a variety of areas in that time, but this will be a whole new skill set for me. I would like to keep in touch with the nurses here who are just starting out in the OR as well :) I could use the camaraderie!

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Yay another newbie!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Float Pool, MICU, CTICU.

Thanks everybody! I already bought some mortars spiral bound notecards for mini.note taking. I'm beyond ready for this and can't wait to start!

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I will be beginning an OR Training Program in the end of July. I am extremely excited and eager to begin. I am a new nurse graduate. Ever since my rotation in the OR early in the nursing program I have been fixated on becoming a perioperative nurse. Congratulations to everyone else who has been accepted into an OR program!

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I also have accepted a job in the OR as a new grad! I am so excited to begin my career. I interned in the OR last summer, and fell in love with it. I'm hoping it will be everything I knew it to be as a student and more!

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