How to become an OR Nurse?

brownbook · Jan 7, 2018

It would be best for you to just concentrate on getting through nursing school. You will not be ready to, or able to, specialize in any area of nursing until you are done with the school program. Few if any schools offer any extra specialization orientation in any of the various areas of nursing.

Why does OR appeal to you so much? What ideas or experiences do you have about OR? If no exposure or experience, again why do you think it is for you?

I repeat, just get through nursing school and clinicals, learn everything you can about every area of nursing you are exposed to. When you get to your last semester or quarter of nursing school come back here and ask again.

Transfer_Student, BSN, RN · Jan 7, 2018

You're absolutely right. Thank you.

brownbook · Jan 7, 2018

Weii, that was easy. í ½í¸‚

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Jan 7, 2018

Shadow an OR nurse first if you end up thinking you want to go that route. It is a very unique area of nursing that has it's own unique skill set. It may be a bit hard to leave OR once you're in there. The skills don't really transfer to other areas, such as med-surg, ICU, or ER.

A lot of major university medical centers have new grad OR nursing fellowships. Check out the websites for the big hospitals near you.

FurBabyMom, MSN, RN · Jan 7, 2018

I agree and I disagree with the advice just to focus on school. Ultimately, yes you do have to focus on getting through school and passing NCLEX to even really begin to focus too much on any nursing job. But you can certainly ask for some shadowing experiences. I had OR shadowing experiences in two of my med-surg clinicals and I got to go to the OR with an urgent c-section when I was doing my L&D observation day during mother-baby clinicals. My clinical instructors were awesome and worked really well with nurse managers to help get us "cool" experiences (we also got to go to vascular lab, GI lab, all kinds of diagnostic stuff). Asking for shadowing experiences doesn't hurt. The answer will always be no if you don't ask. I routinely had students with me when I was in OR staffing every day. I think it's unfortunate that we don't do a better job getting students time in procedure areas. In a day though, it's very difficult for me to explain everything I do and why to students. Rightly so, students are amazed by what is going on around them and may not notice the details and nuances of our workflow.

Mavrick, BSN, RN · Jan 7, 2018

It may not matter to you now but the longevity of OR nurses is legendary. Recently it was in the news that the oldest practicing nurse is 91 and has been an OR nurse the whole time!

Oldest working nurse in U.S. turns 9 - CNN Video

Froggybelly · Jan 14, 2018

You can become an OR Nurse straight out of nursing school if you want to. However, you may find it valuable to gain experience in a different specialty first. Many larger hospitals offer paid clinical internships that range from 3-9 months. You may learn to circulate and/ or scrub. Pay attention to what the internship offers and compare several programs if possible. Good luck!

bw217 · Jan 15, 2018

When I was still in nursing school, I found some OR internship during the summer break and shadowed nurses. I was also very fortunate to find OR position right after I graduated. They offered me 8 months orientation (circulating and scrubbing). I like being a OR nurse because you take care one patient at a time and your job become easier once you know the surgeon well. The bad thing about OR nurse is the skills can't transfer to other areas and it is physically demanding.