New grad Operating room nurse scared about never being able to go to ICU

Editorial Team / Admin · Apr 24, 2021

I have worked with numerous nurses who started in the OR as new grads and moved on to other specialties after quite some time and were successful. It's all about what the new unit is willing to give in terms of orientation and support, as well as the attitude and willingness to learn of the orientee.

SilverBells, BSN · Apr 27, 2021

I personally don't have experience with the OR or ICU. BUT, I can attest to the fact that you wouldn't necessarily be "pigeon-holed" in the OR by starting out there as a nurse. I actually have a friend/colleague who started out in the OR as a nurse and is now working in an ICU, so very similar paths I think. One thing that may have helped her is I believe she did do a little med-surg along with school nursing on the side/as PRN jobs, so she was actually pretty marketable. I know you said med-surg isn't your preference, but is it something you would look at as a temporary or PRN job? Or a job in a sub-acute rehab facility might also provide you some of those other bedside skills while allowing you to primarily work at a job that you truly enjoy. I am not sure that any of these extra jobs are necessary, but it might help. And I can say that you don't necessarily have to stay in the OR forever and can move to the ICU eventually...I've seen it done.

Congratulations and best luck to you! ?

Editorial Team / Admin · Apr 27, 2021

Duplicate threads merged

nursing9462 · Apr 27, 2021

On 4/23/2021 at 8:09 PM, nell2125 said:

Hey guys so I recently applied to both ICUs and OR positions as a new grad. I worked as a nursing assistant in the OR throughout nursing school and I loved the environment. To me it has always been between the ICU or the OR. I didn't get any ICU positions but my OR offered me a position which I accepted as Ortho being my main core. I heard that if you can circulate and scrub Ortho it makes you a very marketable OR nurse especially for travel nursing. However I am still tempted with going the CRNA route I love every aspect and staff position of the OR but I feel like I am young (26 years old) and don't want to be a OR nurse my whole life (nothing against those who were and are OR nurses for their whole career). I am just scared because I have been told over and over again that the OR is career suicide. I know staying maybe 5 plus years can pigeon whole you, but 2-3 years shouldnt. I get depressed sometimes thinking my career is done and the only ladder up is management (even though I know that isn't entirerly true as OR nurses can get their NP and RNFA and in my eyes have an advantage over new grad PAs and nurses fro the floor looking to go the procedural NP route. Even if I did get into the ICU in 2-3 years (which I hope happens) I would still per diem in my OR because I love it and love the team and environment. I just need clarity that new grad OR nurses can transition and have transitioned to the ICU. I also know that I probably should of done med surg for my basic "skills". but also passing up a position for a needed and hard speciality to get into didn't seem like it made much sense to me at the time. Hating medsurg for the skills vs enjoying the OR to me made more sense since I never want to go into a job that involes peoples lives and hate it.

But if you have any advice for my future please help. Any good constrictive criticism is good for my growth as a nurse and a person.

Would you consider PRN stepdown nursing? They see a lot in that area! OR is hard to find, especially as new grad.

tg2125 · Apr 27, 2021

@SilverBells @nursing9462 Thank you guys! How exactly would I be able to get a per diem job on the floor while starting as an OR nurse with not a lot of floor experience. I am interested in it but IDK how that would work with still being full time. I'm not going to lie I truly dislike when people look down on OR nursing calling it "not real nursing" every almost CRNA or ICU nurse tells me that they make it seem like we know nothing. It's alot to learn and I admire my nurses and my surg techs so much they know anatomy and their anticipation is top notch. Every nurse on every unit is important but OR nurses can do a job that most nurses can't do.

speedynurse, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Apr 27, 2021

If OR is your passion and it sounds like it is, then take it while it is available. I started in the ER as a new grad and while I am very grateful for the experience, it burned me out in more than one way. The ICU will do the same thing. Unfortunately, I feel like the vast majority (at least in my hospital) of the ER and ICU is new grads because they are the only ones not completely fried. I actually feel like the OR is a much rarer opportunity then the ICU. Plenty of nurses transfer to another area of nursing - you just trade one set of skills for another.

tg2125 · Apr 27, 2021

8 minutes ago, speedynurse said:

If OR is your passion and it sounds like it is, then take it while it is available. I started in the ER as a new grad and while I am very grateful for the experience, it burned me out in more than one way. The ICU will do the same thing. Unfortunately, I feel like the vast majority (at least in my hospital) of the ER and ICU is new grads because they are the only ones not completely fried. I actually feel like the OR is a much rarer opportunity then the ICU. Plenty of nurses transfer to another area of nursing - you just trade one set of skills for another.

some nurses say the ER and ICU would hire a new grad over an OR nurse with 3 years experience which I don't get at all. It's a shame that people think that way, if I knew nursing was this toxic I would of gone to PA or Med school. I overheard PACU (mostly retired ICU nurses) nurses tell me my friend who is a PCA in the PACU not to go to L&D first because its bad for your skills and pigeon hole . In my head I'm like what the hell L&D nurses play so many roles, triaging, circulating in the c section OR , taking care of critical patients giving birth, doing recovery after a c section ,the list goes on and on.

speedynurse, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Apr 28, 2021

45 minutes ago, nell2125 said:

some nurses say the ER and ICU would hire a new grad over an OR nurse with 3 years experience which I don't get at all. It's a shame that people think that way, if I knew nursing was this toxic I would of gone to PA or Med school. I overheard PACU (mostly retired ICU nurses) nurses tell me my friend who is a PCA in the PACU not to go to L&D first because its bad for your skills and pigeon hole . In my head I'm like what the hell L&D nurses play so many roles, triaging, circulating in the c section OR , taking care of critical patients giving birth, doing recovery after a c section ,the list goes on and on.

Mmm....I haven’t necessarily seen this nor agree with this. There are many many nurses that change specialties. I have seen PICU nurses go to ED, an ICU nurse go to OR and then to preop and PACU, ER nurses go to preop or PACU, etc. I have had one toxic environment...the rest of my workplaces have had great coworkers. I do think hospital systems are not always set up to support nurses. The same with management supporting their nurses. But I don’t agree with necessarily the work environment itself or changing specialties. And I don’t think PAs or NPs or physicians necessarily have it altogether. I have seen plenty of them in some bad or rough situations too. I wish you the best in whatever you choose to do.

One thing I do suggest in whatever speciality you go into is be willing to learn and don’t think one specialty is better then another. They are all different with different skill sets.

JBMmom, MSN, NP · Apr 28, 2021

I would take the OR position and just focus on that for a while. You can pick up a PRN job after you have some experience and get through the first year with the pretty steep learning curve. Don't worry about not being able to find something else, you will find many threads on here from people that made moves from many nursing environments into new ones. I started in long term care and now I'm in the ICU. We have people with many different backgrounds, everyone brings something positive to the unit. Good luck!

tg2125 · Apr 28, 2021

15 minutes ago, speedynurse said:

Mmm....I haven’t necessarily seen this nor agree with this. There are many many nurses that change specialties. I have seen PICU nurses go to ED, an ICU nurse go to OR and then to preop and PACU, ER nurses go to preop or PACU, etc. I have had one toxic environment...the rest of my workplaces have had great coworkers. I do think hospital systems are not always set up to support nurses. The same with management supporting their nurses. But I don’t agree with necessarily the work environment itself or changing specialties. And I don’t think PAs or NPs or physicians necessarily have it altogether. I have seen plenty of them in some bad or rough situations too. I wish you the best in whatever you choose to do.

One thing I do suggest in whatever speciality you go into is be willing to learn and don’t think one specialty is better then another. They are all different with different skill sets.

I personally don't think any speciality is better its just the vibe that I get from working in the O.R, throughout school etc. I had a teacher talk down on the OR nursing saying that "what use is a nurse that just passes instruments to a surgeon" I couldnt keep my mouth shut and told her you would freeze up if you were in a trauma case and scrubbed in, I have the upmost respect for my scrub techs and OR nurses and same goes with my medsurg nurses as I could never be able to handle the load they get as well. I don't know if its just me because I been an assistant in the operating room and I talked to perfusionist CRNAs,SRNAs etc before I became an OR nurse and they talk shade about them (not all but a good amount).

20 minutes ago, JBMmom said:

I would take the OR position and just focus on that for a while. You can pick up a PRN job after you have some experience and get through the first year with the pretty steep learning curve. Don't worry about not being able to find something else, you will find many threads on here from people that made moves from many nursing environments into new ones. I started in long term care and now I'm in the ICU. We have people with many different backgrounds, everyone brings something positive to the unit. Good luck!

Thank you!!

SilverBells, BSN · Apr 28, 2021

11 minutes ago, tg2125 said:

I personally don't think any speciality is better its just the vibe that I get from working in the O.R, throughout school etc. I had a teacher talk down on the OR nursing saying that "what use is a nurse that just passes instruments to a surgeon" I couldnt keep my mouth shut and told her you would freeze up if you were in a trauma case and scrubbed in, I have the upmost respect for my scrub techs and OR nurses and same goes with my medsurg nurses as I could never be able to handle the load they get as well. I don't know if its just me because I been an assistant in the operating room and I talked to perfusionist CRNAs,SRNAs etc before I became an OR nurse and they talk shade about them (not all but a good amount).

Thank you!!

It's too bad that we have nursing instructors who are like that. While it's natural for everyone to have their preference for one type of nursing over another, I would think it would be a professor's job to present each type of nursing in a neutral, objective manner. Each student will likely end up in a different area of nursing, so you never know who you might end up negatively (or positively) impacting. I bet if that teacher required surgery and realized the effort the nurses put forward during her surgery she might have a different perspective. No need to put down an area of nursing just because it is not your thing.