NICU RN to day surgery?

[grobertson10]

Hi all,

I’m currently a NICU RN of 2 years, prior to that, I was a Neuro (adult) ICU RN for 1.5 years. I am now part time at my current gig but want to pick up a PRN position elsewhere. Of course, I’m considering other hospitals and the same speciality I’m currently in, however, I would love the idea of a change and doing PRN Day surgery.

Do any of y’all think I should even bother applying since it’s been 2 years since I’ve worked with adults?

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

I would say that PRN is not the way to go for surgery. It’s a huge learning curve, and really requires repetition to learn. Whether our new OR hires are new grads or have experience in another specialty, they get 6 months orientation in our inpatient ORs or 3 months orientation in our outpatient ORs.

Now, if you’re referring to the perianesthesia side (preop/PACU/post op), that may be doable.

[brownbook]

Agree with Rose_Queen, being a circulator is out of the question.

Pre-op and recovery in day surgery may be doable. All you can do is apply.

Pre-op you start a lot of IV's, if you can say your good, to great, with IV's that would help. Plus you ensure the patient is medically, legally, (paperwork wise), ready for OR.

Recovery is relatively easy, but still your patients have had anesthesia. Sometimes oral airways or head tilt, jaw thrust, is needed for a moment.

The pace in both units is very fast, think assembly line. In pre-op get them ready for OR quickly. In recovery get them sitting up, eating crackers and juice, and ready to go home.

Where I worked they were often looking for nurses to fill the late afternoon to evening shift in recovery. It wasn't unusual for recovery to be full at 5:30 and have one or two more patients still to come out of OR, recovery nurses sometimes stayed past 10:00. Not fun, but you might be offered these "off" hours.