Career Advancement for Perioperative Nurse?

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Hi all! I am currently a nursing student, graduating soon. I am considering going into perioperative nursing. In the future, I do have plans to go back to school and get my MSN/DNP. I would love to be a surgical NP or something along those lines. As a perioperative nurse, are there feasible career advancements for clinical settings? I am aware that many NP programs do not count OR nursing as applicable experience.

Thank you!

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

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1 minute ago, Rose_Queen said:

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Thank you for this! I also wanted to ask- what is your role as an OR nurse with an MSN?

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

I am a clinical nurse educator in staff development. I help run the Periop101 program from AORN for new to the OR nurses, help with organizing orientation of new employees in all roles in periop services, help develop and validate annual competencies, arrange monthly education, provide education on new processes/equipment, and so on.

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Specializes in OR SCRUBULATOR, Nurse Practitioner.

I’m an NP student, I work in the OR and I absolutely love it. My dream is to become a first assist, and I’d also like the increased responsibility of being a practitioner. This is my second MSN and I also have my CNOR.
These two things qualified me for a bunch of leadership positions in my hospital, and the current leadership team pursued me VERY STRONGLY for several months until someone else stood up for the position. I realized I had no interest in leadership away from the OR table. I’d worked with other managers and directors that would scrub in and circulate when needed, but they highly discourage that where I am now. I LOVE working with my neurosurgeons, I love my family planning days. I’m learning to like ORTHO. If you can’t see yourself putting that away, get the MSN, because education is invaluable (and tuition is fully reimbursed if you get the right employer and the right tuition).
I will finish my FNP program in a little under a year, I plan to get my RNFA shortly thereafter. All my surgeons know I am pursuing this, and I’ve already asked several attending a if they would allow me to train/mentor with them. I’d like to work in surgery, inpatient, outpatient, family planning, as long as there is surgery I’m happy. I believe I’d like to get a CRNA in maybe another ten years, but I am not Totally committed to the idea. You have plenty of options, and if something you want to do doesn’t yet exist, then trailblaze. Ultimately, working periop gives you the advantage of forming relationships with doctors that will vouch for you if you know your ish.

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15 hours ago, StacyAtheNurse said:

I’m an NP student, I work in the OR and I absolutely love it. My dream is to become a first assist, and I’d also like the increased responsibility of being a practitioner. This is my second MSN and I also have my CNOR.
These two things qualified me for a bunch of leadership positions in my hospital, and the current leadership team pursued me VERY STRONGLY for several months until someone else stood up for the position. I realized I had no interest in leadership away from the OR table. I’d worked with other managers and directors that would scrub in and circulate when needed, but they highly discourage that where I am now. I LOVE working with my neurosurgeons, I love my family planning days. I’m learning to like ORTHO. If you can’t see yourself putting that away, get the MSN, because education is invaluable (and tuition is fully reimbursed if you get the right employer and the right tuition).
I will finish my FNP program in a little under a year, I plan to get my RNFA shortly thereafter. All my surgeons know I am pursuing this, and I’ve already asked several attending a if they would allow me to train/mentor with them. I’d like to work in surgery, inpatient, outpatient, family planning, as long as there is surgery I’m happy. I believe I’d like to get a CRNA in maybe another ten years, but I am not Totally committed to the idea. You have plenty of options, and if something you want to do doesn’t yet exist, then trailblaze. Ultimately, working periop gives you the advantage of forming relationships with doctors that will vouch for you if you know your ish.

Thank you so much for your reply! I wanted to ask- many programs I am aware of (FNP, PNP, ACNP) do not count OR experience. What programs are you aware of that allow OR experience to count towards experience?

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Specializes in OR SCRUBULATOR, Nurse Practitioner.
30 minutes ago, ki1717 said:

Thank you so much for your reply! I wanted to ask- many programs I am aware of (FNP, PNP, ACNP) do not count OR experience. What programs are you aware of that allow OR experience to count towards experience?

There are plenty of programs that will let you in as long as you let them know what your plans are. My plan to become a surgical NP made my OR experience relevant and I made this clear when interviewing. There are also programs that just want acute care experience, if you work in a hospital you have that.

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Specializes in Trauma hospital/Acute Care/Ambulatory.

Hi all,

I find the topic interesting as I am interested in MSN programs as well. How do you handle the FNP or CNS programs while working in the OR? What ways can they be relevant (e.g., say the direct patient care experiment and pre op assessment , anything else’s.). I will be transferred to OR program in a big teaching hospital soon. Advices? 

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