online courses?

Do a search on this and you will find out there are no "online" courses you can take for perioperative experience. You will either have to find a hospital willing to OJT you, as I did, or find a facility that has a specific course for OR training. There are a few around the country and expect you to stay on for up to 2 years. There is nothing like hands-on learning when it comes to OR nursing. Good luck, Mike

it would be pretty hard to learn perioperative nursing online. so much of what is truly challenging about perioperative nursing is learned hands-on. the hospital where i work has a program for nurses transitioning to the or, as well as a program for new nurse grads coming into the or. we're hardly the only one, but as mike mentioned, you make a committment. of course, you can read a book (which would be akin to an online course) and there are some good ones, but there is nothing like hands on. heck, figuring out the instruments is hard enough, and might as you'd try to look them up in a catalog or book, there's nothing like handling them day after day. you can't learn how to pass an instrument properly unless you actually do it. i wish you luck, and give you the same advice as mike: find a rn transition program.

http://www.bcit.ca/study/programs/680pascert has distance programs for nurses. I don't know if they are online or not, but they do have courses on the theory of perioperative nursing.

Thanks for your advice... I guess I will be waiting around and hoping for an opening after getting more med/surg experience, however what I have seen around the city I live, is you cant get in without perioperative experience, and my boyfriend is not really willing to move elsewhere... so maybe I will have to pick a different specialty... thanks for all your help though! I will keep trying!

I woudn't wait around necessarily. You should send your resume out to all local hospitals and tell them this is your dream interest and you will go through any program they wish if they hire you. If you do move, your boyfriend might follow you....Are you giving up a dream for a guy, or are you sure hes the one.Just a thought.

sharann...great advice you gave i'm going to put that statment in my cover letter. of course not the part about the boyfriend :chuckle that was good advice too.

good luck finding your ideal job happylush!

Just wondering.. are there any online courses you can take to get more perioperative nursing knowledge, experience? If most places will not hire you unless you have perioperative experience, how do you get it in the first place?

Check with all the hospitals in your area, directly. I worked at my facility for 2 years before I found out we had a perioperative program! With the current shortage most bigger hospitals have training programs, or are fast developing one!

Here is a university hospital web site that offers basic perioperative nurse education, however not for any sort of CE credit.

And ditto to the above advice, more hospitals today are willing to train nurses who don't have previous OR experience.

http://www.health.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=71239