Duke new to the OR

we have had several nurses from my unit (med/surg) go to the OR. They have several "new to...." programs for new grads. Not sure about hiring details for exp nurses. If you are an OR nurse, can you not just apply? I know the ones that left our unit to go to OR has zero OR experience.

I don't have any actual "in OR" experience and would feel more comfortable being trained as if I know nothing. I know that I know more from a surgical standpoint than a floor nurse but I still have a lot to learn. That's why I was considering the program.

Nurses in the OR know we are totally different than nurses on the units. I would hope that you would be taught from scratch because almost all of what you learn in the OR is not taught in nursing school and you wouldn't pick it up on the floor. In my experience the nurses that transfer do a wonderful job once they are fully trained. Their background is very useful. I went straight to the OR after nursing school and I feel I missed out on all that knowledge. If you can talk to the director they might decide to take a chance on you if they feel you have potential and train you on the job.

There is a joke that you never see an "ex OR nurse" on a med/surge unit. I work on an ortho unit so the nurses that went to the OR, went to the ortho ORs. But they still had to start from scratch as you stated.

LOL. That is true. Life in the O.R. Is pretty sweet.