New Grad-OR

regglynn · May 12, 2007

Sorry about all the spelling mistakes. I am typing in the dark. I hope you can understand my post.

Lisa1639 · May 12, 2007

I have finally gradauted nursing school!!! :monkeydance:
I have accpeted a job in the OR. I posted this earlier.
When my instructors asked us where we were going, I told them the OR. They both told me I was making a bad decison. They told me I should go to a critical care unit or a med/surg unti to keep up with my skills. they said the OR will be there for me when I can't handle working on the floor anymore. They made me feel awful.
But I am sticking with the OR. I just can't beleive they would shoot the job down that way. That's why I went into nursing. There are so many areas to go inot. I loved my clinical days in the OR and found the atompshere exciting. the nurse:patient raito is 1:1. What else can you ask for.
Has anyone else had negative comments about choosing the OR??

Hey there,

I went into the OR right after graduating from nursing school. I must admit that I have questioned my decision. We really do not do anything that was learned in nursing school, e.g. assessments, IV's, dispensing meds to patients, etc. In my experience, the OR has been all about knowing the equipment, positioning the patient and putting up with very temperamental surgeons that can really be quite demeaning to those around them. The nursing skills that I learned in school have been steadily deteriorating along with some of my knowledge because we just do not use this information. I do not think there is a "floor nurse" that could walk into the OR and do this job because it is so specialized. However, once you have been in the OR for a while, you would have a difficult time going to the floor without retraining. I would say though, if you really want to experience the OR then do so. I do not think it would be a problem finding a job elsewhere if you discover you do not like it. Lisa

CIRQL8 · May 15, 2007

I came to the OR right out of school. Best decision (job related) that I have EVER made!! OR nursing is not an easy job. Very active. Emotionally demanding. Often physically demanding. We are the patients first line of defence against pressure ulcers. I'd like to see an ICU nurse position a patient correctly. They wouldn't know how. It's also a very technical job. There is way too much to tell about it in a single thread. If you read through old threads, bit by bit, you will get a better picture of the OR, but you still will not fully know until you are here. I love it, and I would not do any other type of staff nursing. Ever.

kjorris · May 18, 2007

I am in the same boat as you are Regglynn. I graduated on the fourth of this month, and have an internship/perioperative program in the OR. My teachers also told me to do med surg or floor nursing first, even though everyone at my school knows I came to nursing school to be an OR nurse! I am a little nervous about losing skills that I learned in school, but as I said, I went to nursing school to go into the OR, so I try not to worry about ever having to HAVE to work on a floor (no offense to floor nurses) and concentrate instead on how happy I am that I will be where I have always wanted to be!!!

JHRN2BE · May 19, 2007

Regglyn,

Congrats on graduating!!! I just graduated, too on 5/10! :balloons: Like yourself, I have accepted an internship in the OR as a circulator. My instructors AND my close nursing school friends didn't think it was a good idea b/c of losing skills. I was also told I could cross-train to the PACU and learn to scrub, which I am completely interested in learning. There is so much we can do in the OR....We can work for 2 years and work toward a CNOR and then become a RNFA if we so wish. In my eyes, this is not a dead end position. It's all about attitude!!!!

Best of luck to you in your new career!!!

JH