New Grad RN starting in OR, any advice?

Specialties Operating Room

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Hello fellow nurses! Feels great to join the community of RNs! I'm bran new, NCLEX passed a little over one week ago :-) I will be starting in an OR training program at a level 1 trauma center where I will learn to circulate and scrub (we rotate through each service then will be placed in the service of our choice, if able, at the end of training). I am looking forward to this new journey...to prepare appropriately I have purchased required text books for the program but I would like to know from current OR RNs what else I might find helpful starting out in the OR??? Any materials that will be helpful? And most certainly any words of advice about anything....maybe things you wished you had known when you were bran new in the OR? Thanks so much :-)

Very true about getting a thick skin and NEVER EVER cry in the O.R. Good luck and have fun.

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Relax. I work for a university teaching hospital. We are a level one trauma center. Keep your eyes and ears open at all times. You will learn when it's ok to ask and the times not to ask questions. Follow what you advisor for each service tells you. Each one has a lot of tricks and you can learn them if you watch. Always remember you are working as a team for the patient. You have a lot of new book knowledge but now you learn how to put it to work. You will have some times that you will break down. You are not alone and everyone has done it. Talk with the people you work with. They will help. That is and should be our profession.

You will do great. Relax and learn.

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you are so lucky,i just passed my nclex and everyone wants you to have experience to get into the or. i am in ct and they do have and extended orientation program that teaches scrubbing, circulating passing , but the program never opens up, it opened up once in two years and closed in a few days. I would love to be you, so that leads to my topic.

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I am getting excited. I am starting a one year long peri-operative training program at a level 2 trauma center on Sept. 10th. The first 10 weeks are classroom with lab. It's a class of 10 students and we will rotate through all of the specialities over the next year. At the end of the year we pick which we want to do. After working the first six months out of nursing school on third shift in a rehab center it will be nice to have one patient at a time instead of 24 patients to one nurse. I could not be more excited! Hopefully things will go well. I just can't believe I got this opportunity and have no intention of blowing it.

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Congratulations and good luck.

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How do they work the "on-call" if you live outside the 30 minute window?

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
How do they work the "on-call" if you live outside the 30 minute window?

My facility expects you to make the 30 minute call requirement no matter what. They have an apartment people can stay in for free (key is kept at the charge desk and has to be signed out). Others stay with coworkers they are friendly with. One or two will even spend the night in the lounge.

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Thanks for the quick reply. So basically, if I choose the OR, I would have to sit around for 8 hours making $2 or so per hour, away from home, with a small chance of actually getting called in to work. I guess I could study or workout. I don't know what my facility provides here in NC, but I didn't hear anything about an apartment.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Another option would be to post your call for others to take. Pretty much every OR will have one or two people who, for one reason or another, love to pick up extra call. Other than that, yes, you would pretty much have to spend the eight hours within the 30 minute response window. Back when I lived about an hour away from my job, I'd spend time shopping, relaxing in a nearby park, that sort of thing.

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Hi guys!!

I passed RN state boards and I have accepted a position in the OR. I am nervous about the unknown. I have been an LVN for 8 years, so I have had my share of pompous, arrogant, egotistical and rude physicians and nurses. But I am going into this situation with a new frame of mind and try to absorb all that I can. Can someone give me pointers on the what to do in the OR to be somewhat prepared??

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Specializes in Peds OR as RN, Peds ENT as NP.

The biggest advice I have is to keep your ears open and let things roll off your shoulder. Every case is a new case. Be able to now joke with someone that just upset you ten minutes ago. That's how I make it. While you are in orientation keep your mouth shut (with your opinion). Did I mention be able to laugh at yourself and others? ;) In the OR there is nowhere to hide so always give your best every day.

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Specializes in Mental Health/Substance Abuse.

Just curious how you're doing in the OR? I am also a new grad in the OR and I feel so incompetent sometimes. I was a nursing assistant in an OR and a sterile processing tech which I feel like has been helpful in some ways but the doctors are still so impatient with me. I am constantly being yelled at for prepping too slow (even though I am following the recommended scrubbing time), for not having the patients on the table fast enough, for not anticipating my anesthesiologist needs (mind you these are not critical needs, these are things like not replacing their fluids fast enough). I have even been yelled at for speaking without being spoken to first. Sometimes it takes everything in me just to make it to my car before I start crying. I am starting to feel like maybe the OR isn't right for me.

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