Considering Specialty change

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Specializes in ICU, Trauma, CCT,Emergency, Flight, OR Nursing.

Been a RN 21 yrs here and most of my career has been in ICU, ED and the mojority as a Flight Nurse. While training in South Africa , I spent 2 months as a student nurse in the Cardiothoracic OR and got to scrub (mandatory 5 cases) and circulate and really enjoyed it. Also had didactic teaching from the OR Clinical educator on 'theatre nursing'.During my time in trauma nursing I also got to assist one of our Trauma/Transplant surgeons in South Africa as her surgical assistant (1st assist) when she could not get a MD in time to assist, and learned a lot , enjoying the challenge of emergent surgery and renal transplant surgery.

I'm 45 and am considering my future and keep having this recurring thought about switching specialties and going to work as a perioperative RN.

The questions I have that I would love to have experienced OR nurses input on are

1. Do you think a specialty change after 20 years in the profession to OR nursing is doable ?

2. What do you anticipate being the biggest challenges to overcome ?

3. What would I need to do to prepare for such a specialty change

4. Are there courses specifically that could prepare one for getting back into scrubbing in particular (as I think this is probably the area that is the hardest to learn). Work at a large academic hospital where RNs scrub for many specialties including CV OR.

5. Do you think a chat with the OR manager would be a good idea ?

Just looking at my options and wanting to get your input here . I love what I do but think that I have to think about future options as well.

Appreciate any advice you have .

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Hi RickyRescueRN,

I recently just transitioned into OR nursing after 9 years of pediatrics and OB, I can definitely tell you it is a major change but absolutely doable! The biggest challenge is that OR nursing is so different from any other area of nursing, so it will take some getting used to. As far as preparing, AORN periop 101 is a very informative online course. It was part of my hospitals perioperative training program. I was told by many other OR nurses when I switched, that it will take at least a year to feel comfortable in the OR. And they were absolutely right! Many of them had been nursing much longer than I had, and would share their stories of how it took them a year minimum to feel like they knew what they were doing! But if you don't give up and just keep reminding yourself, you are in a whole different world now, eventually it will start to feel more comfortable, and all come together! I can say I had a rough patch , and felt like I just wasn't ever going to get it together in the OR, I even almost transferred back to my floor, but I was reminded by other OR nurses to not give up, and remember there was a reason I wanted to be an OR nurse. Now after 18 months, I can say I LOVE being an OR nurse!!! It's was definitely worth it! If you are seriously considering making a change I would speak with the Director of the Or at your facility, and see what would be the process for you to transition, and how long of an orientation they provide, it should be at LEAST 6-9 months! As far as scrubbing, that tends to be kind of an on the job train as you go kinda thing. For me now that I'm somewhat comfortable with my circulating skills, if it's kind of a slow day, I'll ask if I can scrub in on certain cases with certain scrub techs.. and try to gain some experience that way!

Good luck!!

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