How long does it take to become a surgical nurse?

Scrubby · Aug 10, 2009

When you say surgical nurse do you mean a nurse who takes care of patients during an operation or after surgery?

RNmb · Aug 10, 2009

At my hospital, they currently have openings for an internship in the OR that I believe you have to only have one year of experience (or maybe even less). The internship is for 6 months and it's a combination of classroom and OR time. After the internship, you decide which area of the OR you would like to be in and on which shift- and there you go. Hope this helps!

allnurses Guide · Aug 10, 2009

At some hospitals, you can basically start in the OR as a new grad, and get a pretty legnthy orientation.

melmarie23, MSN, RN · Aug 10, 2009

When I observed in the CVOR a couple weeks ago I asked those nurses how long their training/orientation was and they said 6-9 months.

I was pretty impressed by them. Their hands were in the chest along with the surgeon and they just knew what to do without anyone speaking. It was like watching a choreographed dance.