My dream is coming true!!!

KeepAtIt · Nov 1, 2017

New grad RN hired to OR a few months ago in a 300+ bed hospital with an OR staff of 100+ with 14 OR rooms + trauma. My orientation is 6 months and follows AORN.org's program which I will become a CNOR nurse in a few months which is beneficial at least to me. I circulate then rotate in each unit for 2 weeks each. I had the option to choose and chose to circulate 1st so I could watch the scrub techs/scrub RNs and see how each surgeon treats them/any certain way to scrub and also to become more familiar with the instruments. I will circ then scrub through general/cysto/gyne/neuro/ortho/def am forgetting other parts. But, I have a choice my last 3 weeks to where I want to be and if I scrub/circ. Good luck on your boards. Try the program Uworld.com and do all the questions, it's layed out like the NCLEX and was extremely helpful to me and my friends, way more than using books. Congrats & GOOD LUCK!!!

WhoDatWhoDare, BSN, RN · Nov 2, 2017

You need more time to even be eligible to test

Editorial Team / Admin · Nov 3, 2017

My orientation is 6 months and follows AORN.org's program which I will become a CNOR nurse in a few months which is beneficial at least to me.

Incorrect. One must have 2,400 hours AND 2 years experience as an RN before even becoming eligible to register for the exam. If this is something your employer told you, that sends a big red flag. If this is a misinterpretation on your end, you would benefit from visiting cc-institute.org to educate yourself about the CNOR requirements and what it truly means.

Editorial Team / Admin · Nov 3, 2017

My orientation is going to be around 9 months long, where I will learn how to scrub and circulate. So to everyone who went through orientation this long in a pretty big hospital, did you learn how to scrub or circulate first? Did you think that specific order was beneficial? How long did it take you to get through different specialties?

At my facility, nurses only circulate as we have a very large percentage of surgical techs on staff. The rare exceptions are nurses who previously were surgical techs, have experience from other facilities, or are part of a certain specialty team. For those who are on that specialty team and learn to scrub, they always learn to circulate first. Rotations through the various specialties is likely to depend on the case volume in each specialty and whether it is a closed team or shared resource (closed team meaning only certain people are involved in those surgeries, commonly seen with cardiac). A facility that has a massive neurosurgical volume is likely to provide more time in that specialty than in, for example, thoracic if the thoracic case volume is less than half of neuro. There's just no cookie cutter orientation that works for all facilities.

KeepAtIt · Nov 3, 2017

Yep, you all are right. I misunderstood that. I had been thinking about taking the aorn exam after my course is over and got them confused. thank you!

imanurseintheor · Nov 9, 2017

I learned to both scrub and circulate. Believe it or not 9 month isn't long enough-well for me it wasn't. I went through about 8 services in my 8-9 month orientation and by the time I finished and went to my shift it was difficult to remember and rehash everything and put it to practice. They say it takes about a year to just get comfortable in the OR itself and another year to feel comfortable and proficient in any certain service. Anyone can argue with me, but I think it's pretty accurate. The OR is a really special and unique foreign world to most people and it's hard to explain!