New to OR, need advice on resources

Specialties Operating Room

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Specializes in Cardiac and Emergency Department.

Hey everyone. I'm an ER nurse and have been since graduating nursing school in 2011. Question: I've heard that OR nursing is a huge learning curve and I'd like to learn as much as I can before I start in the OR of a Level 1 Trauma center in mid March.

What resources (books, videos, etc) have been your go-to's? I would value any input you have for me as I know that it will be a challenging environment and nothing like what I'm used to experiencing (they told me I most likely won't be comfortable for at least a year-if then).

I will go through their peri-op 101 course and have up to a total of six months orientation. What should I focus on? OR nurses at this facility do not specialize in a certain service, every OR circulating nurse is expected to be able to be able to circulate in on every surgery they perform (other than transplant and CV-they have special teams for those).

What do you wish you had known prior to starting in the OR?

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My advice is to be patient with yourself and the others around you. You're going to be the new person, which means you are an unknown. They won't know you, you won't know them...give that time. Give yourself time to "get it". Some days will be great - others you will feel like you will never do anything right.

Join AORN - go to local meetings if you can swing it.

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Hello EmergencyNurse2012, Welcome to the best specialty in nursing! Can you tell I'm biased?! ?

Glad to hear that your orientation is six months. It will be an exciting, yet humbling experience. I was a med-surg nurse and changed to OR. It truly was like being a new grad again.

I agree with FurBabyMom in that AORN is a great resource. It is the professional organization of OR nurses. The website has lots of information. For books, I would recommend Alexander's Care of the Patient in Surgery by Jane Rothrock and Pocket Guide to the Operating Room by Maxine Goldman. I like the Pocket Guide book for its ease of use. It explains procedures, discusses positioning, prepping, and instruments likely needed. I found it useful when I was orienting to an unfamiliar specialty. Most facilities have preference cards for surgeons and their procedures that you will look over prior to the surgery; however, I liked to use the book as an additional reference.

Good luck! Keep us updated on how it is going!

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Specializes in OR Hearts 10.

Good luck. Just take it all in. I love new peeps that also know who to be a nurse. Take information from everyone. Focus on the patient and procedures first then the charting. Hopefully they will let y'all just observe before starting peri-op 101. Like everywhere you will run into many different personalities.

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Specializes in ICU, Trauma, CCT,Emergency, Flight, OR Nursing.

In the same boat here; been a flight nurse for the past 17yrs and an ICU and ED RN before that. Applied for two different OR jobs at my hospital (large academic hospital). I started watching OR youtube videos on instruments, positioning, safety, sterilization, OR fires, surgical smoke evacuation etc about a year ago and that has helped me a lot. Became a member of AORN; bought all the OR books (Berry & Kohn, Alexanders, AORN Periop Guidelines, Pocket guide to the OR, and Instrumentation for the OR). Our hospital has a 10 week Periop 101 course as part of the orientation. We are required to scrub and circulate, though in some services (CV OR) the RNs do a lot more scrubbing. Super excited as well, though a bit scared as its a huge change from taking care of patients on board a helicopter. Good luck to you!

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