How did everyone get into the OR?

kocheli · Jan 4, 2010

hi my dear friend,with 3 year OR experience i struggled 2 months to get a job in OR,just because my experience from out of country.Any way ,you can apply for internships,otherwise i think it is hard for direct entry.Wish you all the best for your job hunting.My prayers are with you

JLKNurse · Jan 4, 2010

hi my dear friend,with 3 year OR experience i struggled 2 months to get a job in OR,just because my experience from out of country.Any way ,you can apply for internships,otherwise i think it is hard for direct entry.Wish you all the best for your job hunting.My prayers are with you

Thank you so much for the support!

BethCNOR, BSN, RN · Jan 5, 2010

A hundred years ago (well, OK, 30 yrs. ago) when I started in the OR, there was this concept called "on the job training". Now they have internships or nurse residency programs. Check into the availability at your hospital or other hospitals in your area. These programs are usually about 6-9 months and involve both classroom and clinical experiences.

Good luck to you in your quest to join the OR. It's a great job!

carluvscats · Jan 9, 2010

Hello JLK, I am a recent hire to the OR after 1 year of pediatric home health experience (upon passing boards). At my hospital, there is no "official" internship or residency program. The training/orientation is 6ish months long; all in the actual OR.

I would encourage you to apply for OR positions in your area, and let your enthusiasm shine through during your interview! You never know what will happen!

Surgery182 · Jan 16, 2010

I think one of the keys to getting in to the OR, especially as a new grad, is to start working on that before or during nursing school. Start out as a scrub or an aid. 2 years before I started nursing school I was hired in an OR to work as a nurses aid/anesthesia tech. It paid barely above minimum wage and it was hard work but it sure is paying of now. I had job offers to 4 different OR's before I graduated.

In my class we had a bunch of returning mom's who came back to school to get their nursing degree and got to stay home all night and study. I was working my rear end off in the OR, learning valuable information and skills that you can't get from a textbook or lecture during nursing school. So come graduation, the older mom's may have had better grades but the economy sucks and there were no jobs available for them. Instead of working and gaining experience through nursing school, they focused on getting A's. When you graduate, A's don't pay the bills. So if you really want to work in the OR you need to plan ahead and get your foot in the door any way you can.

ericseitz · Jan 21, 2010

I don't know if it will make a difference, but I am also very interested in the OR particularly. I am currently still finishing prereqs and doing my training as a CNA. I have been volunteering at a local 'street'clinic/needle exchange and just recently got a position as a volunteer in the OR at the local city level one trauma hospital. I am planning on getting that experience in the field as I am progressing through nursing school because I would assume that it would help as far as what employers are looking for. It's just a really interesting thing to me to be able to work from the bottom up, it just feels like the right thing to do.

CIRQL8 · Jan 22, 2010

I came to the OR right out of nursing school. My institution has internship programs for nurses preparing to enter their final year of nursing school every summer for 10 to 12 weeks, depending on budget things. We use that time to recruit new grads when we are hiring! New grads are more welcome to the OR now than they were even before I started 13 years ago.

Free standing day surgery clinics and provate hospitals are more likely to want 3 to 5 years experience before considering an applicant.

Make sure to mention the Operating Room as an area of interest on your applications to hospitals.

Most hospitals have job opening in the internet now. Maybe all of them....!! Apply to ones that are posting openings in the OR.

We're hiring. Just hired 3 nurses and looking for 3 or 4 more.

Also we need 3 to 4 surg techs!

LAM2010, BSN · Jan 25, 2010

I haven't gotten an OR job yet - I just graduated in December '09 w/ a BSN - but I was able to get my last semester's clinicals in an OR (leadership and management clinicals) and so I have some connections in that OR. The assistant director, who was my preceptor, told me I should apply for a job there, so I did and I'm calling her this week (I saved her numbers). I kind of dragged my feet til now because I thought I "should" just start out in med-surg, but since it's going to be some work to get a med-surg job (and I know I'll hate it), I thought I may as well see what this lady can tell me.

(I kind of didn't believe her when she told me I could get an OR job straight out of college, but she is a very straightforward, no-B.S. kind of person, so I don't think she'd tell me that if I couldn't do it. And why shouldn't I believe the assistant director?)

Don't take "No" for an answer :) When people tell me I can't (without the facts or proof to back it up), then I just want to do it more. It has never failed me yet.

LAM2010, BSN · Feb 10, 2010

Just came back to say that I got my job in the OR with the preceptor I had in my last semester of clinicals. I don't think I'd have gotten past HR if I hadn't known a little about the hospital and had a preceptor to contact like I did. Almost everyone around who I mentioned my plans to, including a lot of my nursing instructors, said I wouldn't be able to get a job in an OR straight out of school and I was out to prove them wrong and I didn't want to wait a few years - I'm 37, not 22, and don't have as much time ahead of me as 22-year-olds do :) But what helped me was "knowing someone" to even be given the chance to interview.

They told me what they were uncomfortable about with hiring new grads was that they quickly leave for another job. They put a lot more time and energy into hiring a new grad, so if they do it, they want to try to get a decent amount of time back from that person. They had a lot of their new grads leave after a few months for other positions - for example, one wanted to be a NP.

New nurses may be easier to train in some ways because they are molding an inexperienced person to the ways of the OR world. A person going in from med-surg is used to doing things in a way that are very different than the OR, and they have to re-learn some things. I think energy is spent in either situation.

They also wanted me to know that I'd have to have a thick skin or be able to deal with all different types of personalities among the other staff and the surgeons.

GadgetRN71, ASN, RN · Feb 10, 2010

I was a surgical tech before I was a nurse so when I finished nursing school, they hired me as an OR nurse. What seems to work too is getting your foot in the door as a student. I've known some that were orderlies, or worked in the instrument room. There are also Student Nurse positions in many hospitals..and we had a couple of them in the OR. They even taught them to scrub(always paired with someone though, they didn't first scrub).Basically, anything you can do to make yourself a familiar face is going to help you.

I agree with what a PP said, there are far more OR positions open to new grads now than there were in the past..don't let instructors discourage you..they tend to talk trash about OR nursing anyway.

chokyali · Feb 10, 2010

I got into OR because I know it is in my heart. When I was still in college , I told myself I want to work in the OR. So after graduation and passed the exam I enrolled in post nursing practicum course ( Peri-operative module ) which was held for 3 months. Then i applied abroad and got lucky to be assigned in the OR. First few months was kinda tough. I was bullied by my senior nurse and some were rude but I did not give up because I love OR. So if you think you enjoy bcoming an OR nurse go for it.