Circulator in Orthopedic Surgery Job Offer

Editorial Team / Admin · Apr 21, 2017

3 months of orientation is not enough for someone with zero OR experience in my opinion. Is the 20 cases per day divided out between those 10 rooms or are some of them not in use? If someone is only doing 2 cases per day with a three month orientation, there's just no way the nurse is going to become familiar with all of the implants and equipment used in ortho. What type of setting is this? Ambulatory? Inpatient? That's also going to affect the types of cases seen.

nocturnallife, ASN, RN · Apr 22, 2017

I believe it's in an outpatient setting. I was told the orientation length was only 3 months because I'm only learning one service. My other option is 6 months of orientation as a circulator RN learning general, vascular, cardiac. This would be in the hospital.

nocturnallife, ASN, RN · Apr 22, 2017

urology also

Editorial Team / Admin · Apr 22, 2017

I would go for the hospital multi-specialty job with more training. Then again, ortho isn't my favorite, so take that with a grain of salt.

nocturnallife, ASN, RN · Apr 22, 2017

I find the multi-speciality a little intimidating! Even though I will be circulating I have to learn all the instruments as well right? What don't you like about ortho?

Editorial Team / Admin · Apr 22, 2017

You'd be surprised by how many instruments make an appearance in multiple specialties. As for ortho, it's just not my thing. Not a fan of a lot of the docs, either.

affurman, BSN, RN · Apr 25, 2017

Even though it's only one service line, three months orientation time for someone new to the OR setting is pretty short. I went through Periop 101 and with our service line rotations, it was 9 months. Even after that, I wasn't really comfortable for several more months of being on my own. I think you should really look into going to the hospital so you can learn the other service lines as well. You may go to circulate in Ortho and find its not for you. If you don't have the training for the other service lines, you may be stuck and miserable.

affurman, BSN, RN · Apr 25, 2017

Nocturnallife: The system won't let me send you a message.

Here is the abridged version:

Are Cardiac, vascular, general and urology the only ones you would have to learn? What about ortho, neuro, plastics, GYN, eyes or anything else? If you have to learn cardiac, vascular, general and urology, six months would be challenging but, I think, doable with the right mentor team.

My orientation was almost a year. I started in April of 2015, did the didactic (AORN Periop 101 course) until August. We were in the classroom three days a week, in the OR for two, after the first month. Then we went through each service line (General, Retinal/GYN/Podiatry, Neuro/ENT, Urology/Plastics, Ortho, and Cardiac/Vascular) for 3-4 weeks. We then got placed in our home specialty and reoriented to them for another 4 weeks. We were originally supposed to circulate for two weeks and scrub for two weeks but that became 3/1 shortly afterwards in all the service lines save Cardiac/Vascular.

nocturnallife, ASN, RN · Apr 26, 2017

I'm not sure. My impression was that I would learn each service then float between each service once orientation is over. I'm not sure if I get to select the area/service that I like.

affurman, BSN, RN · Apr 26, 2017

If you can get a copy, Alexander's Care of the Patient in Surgery and AORN's Guidelines would be the books I would recommend. I wouldn't get either of them if they cost a lot, your facility should have a copy of each for you to use.

nocturnallife, ASN, RN · Apr 26, 2017

Ok @affurman, ADN, BSN, RN thank you!