Clear goal but blurry path to the OR

[MrsNJTransplant]

Hi everyone, new to allnurses and loving it so far....

Im a brand new and shiny nursing student but come from 2 years OR experience as an orthopedic hardware rep (obviously very different path). Loved the OR so much and met a few meaningful and very driven nurses who I also loved so much I was inspired to change my life and go back to school to get my RN :redbeathe

Im sure I want to be in the OR (but still going into this with an open mind knowing I may be called elsewhere). For now Im just wondering what the best path for me is to get into the OR as quickly as possible....already have alot of contacts at hospitals I used to work at and even a few surgeons who are willing to take the time to write some recommendation letters. Just wondering if I should go directly to the hospital I want to eventually work at and extern through school, or even volunteer?! Or rather stay at a smaller hospital close to my house and get more well-rounded experience and then hope to apply to the Level One when I graduate?

Also anyone have any advice on CRNFA? After spending countless hours in surgery with a few first assist's Im very interested in pursuing it in the future. I (think I) have a good idea of the roles and responsibilities of the position and am so excited about it I often dream of what it will be like.... Im in an associates program now, do I need a BSN before CRNFA? Or would my Bachelors in business suffice for application? Embarassed to say Im not sure how it works....

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!!! :yeah:Thanks in advance Ps. I clearly love the icons...

[Argo]

Cci.com is where you can find out about your path to crnfa.

I would recommend you go to te hospitals You used to Rep at in the or and stay active with the employees there. I have a few ortho reps that I would hire as a nurse or scrub in a heartbeat.

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

It's funny that you are taking the path of RN, because I know so many RNs and STs who want to be a REP! Ironic.

You'll get hired directly into the OR with your contacts and with letters of rec from the surgeons you used to work with. No worries there.

Good luck to you!

[MrsNJTransplant]

@ Argo, thats great! thanks for the reply, good to hear there are other knowledgeable reps out there who take their jobs seriously!!

@ Canes, thanks for the well wishes! Ive spoken to alot of RN/ST's who are seeking out rep positions as well, and to that I say, 'have at it!!' LOL which Im sure is exactly what theyre saying to me...

Bottom line is that I have an intense desire to do my best everyday and be an unwavering advocate of the patient :redpinkhe. As a rep I always felt like we had the wrong motives, but I can only speak from my own experience :hdvwl:

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

Oh wow. You must be an amazing individual to entirely change your course in life for altruistic motives. I admire you and have no doubt that you will do extremely well in the nursing field.

Strictly speaking from my own experience, I found that working on a med/surg floor my first year out of nursing school gave me a leg up when I got to the OR. However, I never intended on doing OR nursing...I found that path later in my nursing career and I am so thankful that I am here in the OR now. I could not imagine doing any other type of nursing.

With that being said, my question to you is this: how comfortable are you in the OR? Do you understand the pathophysiology of what you are seeing in the surgical theatre? What kind of training did you receive for your position as a rep? Did you have to go to anatomy and physiology classes? Do you understand the mechanisms of common drugs that we use in the OR? My guess is that you have a pretty good grasp on A&P and if you don't know the pharmaceutical stuff, you will learn it in school. No worries there, I was just trying to see what your baseline knowledge is.

In my opinion, I think you would do well to go directly into the OR at a level 1 trauma center. You don't have to volunteer or work extra to understand the OR-you already have that knowledge base. Either hospital you choose will broaden your horizons. A level 1 trauma center will likely have a nurse intern program, you can get some REALLY rich knowledge from this program, and furthermore these programs typically host new grads.

You mentioned that you would like to go to RNFA school. Go ahead and get your degree, get a couple of years under your belt, join AORN now while you are a student (it is so much cheaper to join as a student and you will get some valuable insight and be able to investigate the RNFA requirements).

I wish I could shake your hand. I am glad to know there are people like you out there who CARE about your career and moreover, your fellow man.

[MrsNJTransplant]

well thanks for all the wonderful compliments!

I feel extremely comfortable in the OR, I spent alot of time asking questions and became quite close to a few docs and a particular team at one hospital- enough to ask q's freely regarding just about anything. Clearly all my experience is with either nailing, plating, screws, fusions, exfix, implantables, I & D, etc, but I tried as much as I could to learn from the environment I was in and also respect everyone in the room including the patient. When youre a rep ppl are pretty quick to let you know what youre doing wrong HA so I figured that out in no time flat!! We also had some niche peds ortho products so I got to observe many deformity corrections which was most interesting for me. Since my job required me to be in the room when doc's used the product I think I gained a wealth of knowledge, but it is only in one particular area.

I would definitely say Im lacking though in regards to drug use/effects aside from maybe some pain med/infection control stuff. Hopefully school will be able to clear that up. And our training was decent but not great, most of it I learned from being in a busy Level One with a hot shot doc who loved to teach. We were required to have all of our immunizations (obvi) as well as some bloodborn pathogen training on file which really helped me to understand my limitations. If it werent for that I probably wouldve looked alot like a bull in a china shop! But I felt prepared and priveleged to be in someones OR.

Anyways, sorry for the rant its just excitement! Everyone says there are two reasons ppl go into the OR- laziness and genuine curiousity and the desire to learn. Im def the latter and just want to be my own personal best. :beer: Thanks for chatting!

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

I am in the ortho specialty as well, so I LOVE to see my reps in the room! I know what you mean about the staff pointing out anything you do incorrectly. Honestly, I don't understand why reps get treated so badly sometimes.

You will love being an OR nurse. I don't know about the lazy comment...the nurses I work with are so busy running their butts off that they don't get a chance to sit down until lunch.

[MrsNJTransplant]

yeah I love ortho, too.

oh no, I didnt mean I thought anyone in the OR is lazy. One doc just told me some peoples' motivation to come into the OR is bc the 'perception' is they stand around the whole time. Which obviously is not the case!! Most nurses I see are literally sprinting back and forth to supply... or I was also... looking for something I needed. Lots of adrenalin, made me nuts in a good way

what are your fav cases to work?

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

No worries, Jersey. I knew that you were not of the opinion that OR nurses were lazy since you wrote, "everyone says". I just hate that there are so many who have this misconception of what OR nurses are like.

My fave cases are ortho trauma, gamma nails, giant cell tumor resections, ex-laps and craniectomies. I absolutely LOVE to learn and can't get enough. Yes, I am not only a geek, I am their president!

What are your faves? What specialty do you think you want to go into?

[MrsNJTransplant]

OKay good! ha!

I love gamma nails (ours were called PTN's), theyre most of what I saw. Also really liked tibial nails and extreme plating cases, even saw a few where they had to be both nailed and plated (!), interesting surgeon.... Also saw a few Blounts correction cases which were really fascinating. I've seen lawn-mower accidents where some kids were badly injured (luckily with positive end results) but plastics had to come in because of the size of the wounds. It was unbelievable . Also two elbow cases that blew my mind and I still think about to this day..

Ill bet craniectomies are soo interesting!! Never got to see one of those.. but hopefully one day! Im sure I will be pulled towards trauma or even emergency dept, I am definitely a follower of 'geek', Mr. President

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

Oh and the awake cranis are interesting. I am in a large level 1 trauma center and we get a lot of just plain unusual cases. We get giant cell tumor resections pretty often and plastics has to come in and close. Lots of peds ortho as well. I like the neck cases too because you get to see all of the delicate anatomy (and my favorite word in the world happens to be sternocleidomastoid). You will love that the attendings are very open to questions and are more welcoming when the nurses show an interest in the case.

My favorite part overall about working in the OR is that I get to listen to the attendings teach the residents, and my geeky butt soaks all of that knowledge up...it's a free education in my eyes. Since the residents do frequent rotations with each of the attendings, they start at square one with the new residents, so I get reinforcement teaching! YAY!

Don't forget to vote for me again this year as I run for Geek President!

[MrsNJTransplant]

HAHA!! Sternocleidomastoid!!!! HAHA!!! I cant believe you said that! I remember exactly where I was sitting in my living room while studying for A & P, thinking "this is the most awesome word EVER!" and whats even better- It actually makes sense why its labeled that!!! GO FIGURE!!! Why cant everything in life be so self-explanatory

And of couse I totally agree with what you said also, its like free education. And you even get to differentiate between surgeons preference, schools of thought, opinions, and their past experiences. So not only do you know one way of doing it, you know the same case at least 10 different ways! with different hardware/equipment. amazing! you most be a plethora of knowledge!!!

can i hire you and your presidential status to help me out with everything from here on out LOL

First day of class for me tomorrow (!) CANT WAIT!!!! Now if I can only contain my excitement so I dont look like so much of a dweeb...hmmm :clpty: