How did everyone get into the OR?

CA RN 444 · Feb 10, 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!

Hi there! May I ask which hospital/city you are referring to? I'm a new grad and would also love to work in the OR! Thanks!

JLKNurse · Feb 19, 2010

Congrats on the new job! It must be really great to have a job right after school (I'm still looking for a job-it will be a year next month). Best of luck to you! : )

solneeshka, BSN, RN · Feb 21, 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.

Some of those returning moms who came back to school to get their nursing degree *did* work their way through nursing school AND got A's. If they had kids at home, trust me, they were not sitting around all night studying. They were feeding their kids, doing their laundry, helping with homework, driving them to sundry sports practices and birthday parties, knowing all the time that the care plans and exams were waiting for them once all the housework and childrearing was done. I would have given anything to have had the flexibility with my time work as an OR tech when I was in nursing school but you're not allowed to lock your kid in a closet when you have to work a night shift. Maybe think about being grateful for the opportunity you had, not all of us did.

SnakeEyes · Mar 7, 2010

I agree with the last post. That's very short sighted to think that nursing students with kids at home had such free time.

Most people who don't have kids have no clue at all. College and working are only the first part of a day for parents...the real work starts when you get home. And somehow you've got to squeeze in homework, studying, group projects and research papers.

Seriously, someday you will see...and you will look back and be amazed at how the student-parents got it all done (with 'A's, too!)

rubichick · Mar 11, 2010

Some of those returning moms who came back to school to get their nursing degree *did* work their way through nursing school AND got A's. If they had kids at home, trust me, they were not sitting around all night studying. They were feeding their kids, doing their laundry, helping with homework, driving them to sundry sports practices and birthday parties, knowing all the time that the care plans and exams were waiting for them once all the housework and childrearing was done. I would have given anything to have had the flexibility with my time work as an OR tech when I was in nursing school but you're not allowed to lock your kid in a closet when you have to work a night shift. Maybe think about being grateful for the opportunity you had, not all of us did.

I was one of those Mom's who returned to school to become a nurse. I also worked a full-time job, took care of my kids and studied when everything else was taken care of and many times that wasn't until well after everyone else had gone to bed for the night. I managed to get A's in school and before I graduated I was hired in the OR of the hospital I did an internship in during my last 8 weeks of school.