ED before OR?

For the most part, ED and OR nurses do not normally work very closely together. The exception may be if you work in a trauma center. Where I work if a level 1 trauma comes into the ED a team from the OR always attends the trauma to help with intubation, cracking chest, etc.

ED experience will generally not help you very much with working in an OR, and visa versa. Both very different animals.

When things go wrong in the OR (codes, bleeding out etc) the OR team deals with it. Other teams are not called into the OR to assist - you are the crash team.

Training for both the ED and OR is extensive. Suggest you shadow in both departments before making a decision either way.

I agree with TakeTwo. They are two very different specialties. If you want to work with one patient at a time and focus on surgery and setting up, maintaining and troubleshooting in the OR, then you should choose surgery. If you want many patients at once, desire the exposure to acute situations in a variety of scenarios, then ED is for you.

The OR team is trained to run codes, however since we have anesthesia staff already in the room, the responsibility of the OR nurse is to assist. You don't actually run the code, but you are expected to assist in any way possible. I was working nights years ago and we had a ruptured AAA come into the OR emergently. We had anesthesia staff there, the surgeon cracked the chest and the scrub nurse was assisting. I was the circulator in the room at the time and when the scrub nurse was inundated with doing both cardiac massage and helping the surgeon with hemostasis, I scrubbed in and took over cardiac massage. The patient lived. Thank goodness.

You really must target what you would be most interested in and develop your learning goals from there. Both are rewarding opportunities and I think that either would be a great experience. I am an OR nurse, so I am biased:)

Thanks for both your responses.

In my area, more EDs are willing to train new grads than ORs so I am being swayed by that a bit. I think I will just be more patient and focus on getting into the OR. :)

Do you have an OR nurse resident program in your hospital for new grads? That would be the way to go if you do. Good luck to you!