just hired for OR

CSTCFA · Dec 10, 2006

The short answer. If you have no OR experience then they will at least pair you up with another nurse for three to six month min. Call is split up between all the nurses. Yes sometimes you do have to stay late.

stackeyes · Dec 10, 2006

Should I brush up on certain skills, since I really have not used any of them since I have graduated?

Ex: labs etc?

thnaks for your reply

tessa_RN · Dec 10, 2006

Some skills that are important in the OR are putting in a foley, some places you even put in IV in holding, and assesing your patients...At my hospital I am in the pre-op holding area to so those are some important things..Labs are important so you can tell the doctor about them..Assessment is really important.For me it is the most important skill..Like I had a patient in the holding area her heartrate was up and she felt warm..I decided to take her temp and it was 102 and she ended up having pneumonia and the case was cancelled..also watching your patients vital signs are important while working in the OR...If I see a patients blood pressure do a big drop or their heart rate gets weird I will need to think if I need to be prepared to get a crash cart, how much blood is this patient losing, and so on...If you do IV sedation you will need to know about the drugs you are using, the side effects, the reversal agents, and what to do if your patients O2 sat drops....It may seem overwhelming at first but eventually it will all start to click...I know for me when I started the OR I thought what in the world am I doing here..But overtime I begin to feel more comfortable and I love it..I wouldnt want to be anywhere else..Good luck...

sunnyjohn · Dec 10, 2006

You may actully find you like OR nursing.

Even with the call and the cases that run over, the hours are decent.

As a newbie they will try to get you to take those add-on cases that come in at 3pm. Saying "yes" every single time is a beginners mistake! DON'T LET THEM GUILT-TRIP YOU! Only say yes once-in-a-while when you are sure you can handle the overtime.

Yes, sometime you will have a pain in the butt surgeon or other crazy nurses/techs but if you worked as a parish nurse with ornery people in the community, you should do fine.

As long as your nurse manager is honest about the scheduling, sticks up for the staff, and you get paired with another nurse for a preceptorship, you should do fine.

nurseinlimbo · Dec 13, 2006

I can't believe that they hire with no previous training. Our OR would not think of hiring without the perioperative nursing course, which takes 6 months to complete (4 months homestudy, 2 months lab/clinical) and then an 18 shift preceptorship. I had a hard time adjusting even after the course because the nurses were so hard on me.

crackerjack · Dec 14, 2006

My employer hired me fresh out of nursing school. I oriented to the hospital then to various departments related to the OR (CS, charge desk, scheduling...) then attended AORN's Periop 101 course and have since been orienting to the various specialties in the OR. I was hired in May and next schedule I go off orientation. They had actually expected to keep me (and another couple gals) in orientation for a good while longer but I've done so much better than they expected for a new grad that I'll be off orientation sooner than expected. I have actually been running a room by myself for well over a month, for the most part anyway. The primary charge nurse is still very protective of me when making these assignments and makes sure he or someone else is available if I need to run for something that I've never heard of before. I even had to run for something recently that he hadn't a clue about and he's been in nursing for 20+ years so I don't feel like I'm too bad off there LOL

I think hiring new grads vs those that are experienced in the OR is a matter of desperation and/or a desire to train fresh meat rather than deal with long-standing bad habits from those with experience. We currently have an experienced OR nurse who is orienting and OMG are there some awful habits...enough so that this person probably should have been let go already. I'm not sure why this person is still there.

Ok, I'm getting way off track here....anyone who's read posts by me is probably getting the picture that I do this often :clown: My point is, hiring a new grad can work and be very rewarding for both the new grad and employer.

I do have to comment that I love our OR director. She will very often come to the room and check on folks, ask if they need any help, lend a hand with the yuck jobs, etc. :w00t: Our previous dir was a witch and the most you got out of her was screaming and demeaning comments. :devil: :flamesonb With a good director and great support staff, hiring and training even a *slow* new grad can be a good thing.:Snowman1:

CrazyScrubNurse, BSN, RN · Dec 30, 2006

The only advice I have for ya is put on your "Im confident and not scared" face and keep truckin. It will be hard at first and you may want to quit because it is like walking into a whole new planet where things are named weird and you don't recognize anything but it will all come together after a while. Just take notes, realize that you may get screamed at a few times and just keep going. The OR is wonderful but there is a big learning curve there and it may take a while. It's a blast don't give up. Oh and the call.....yes it sucks but most likely there are some nurses who always need money and will want the extra time.