Operating room travel nursing

[etodd123]

Hi, I am currently living in Australia and was thinking about going to the US and doing travel nursing in the OR. How are the ORs set up in the US? Here in Australia we specialise in a certain field (i.e. I do Plastics and ENT) and we also do both roles, scrub/scout. Do nurses in the US specialise in a certain field or do they have to do all areas in the OR? Many thanks for any help on this issue. By the way I am an RN. :)

[NedRN]

It is not so easy to specialize as a traveler except in open hearts. Most hospitals are going to want general skills, although many are going to want strengths in a certain service like neuro or ortho. You might say that pediatrics is a specialty, but it is really like adults in that you need skill in multiple services. Scrubbing is a huge plus for getting assignments, but in real life won't be used at many hospitals as most have sufficient techs (non-RNs) to scrub. In the US, the circulator (runner/scout) is the higher trained team member (despite a lack of scrub skills) and from a legal perspective (which is everything in the US) responsible for the scrub.

In my experience as a traveler, I seldom do ENT and when I do, it is usually just the simple stuff. Most travelers will do plastics, but it will never be the exclusive specialty on an assignment. That said, the manager will assess the skill set of travelers before making a choice for how well it will fit in the staff mix. Sometimes a particular strength in a traveler (which could include ENT) will be desirable due to a lack depth in that service of staff, or perhaps someone who needs orientation.

So yeah, I don't think your skills are plug and play here, but the bigger problem is licensure. No reciprocity this direction. You will need to sit for the national examination and jump through many hoops.

[scrubulator]

Funny! I am in the US and thinking of going to Australia for nursing- ( do they do travel nursing in Australia? If so, can americans do travel nursing in AU?)

In the US, most ORs train their nurses across every surgical service (except for hearts) but you will specialize in one surgical service (and usually a second/third one). Every nurse is supposed to at least know the basics (general surgery should be one of those three specialities). Some hospitals train their nurses to do both scrub/scout but you will find hospitals who have their nurses mainly scrub because they have a lot of scrub techs. Typically, (good) hospitals will ask you what you can't do and will avoid putting you in that surgical service to scrub/scout but you will be put in to circulate.

It would look good if you can do scrub AND circulate (scrubbing ortho and neuro look amazing for travelers), a few years experience and having a bachelors/masters degree looks good too (tho a couple of hospitals will hire associates). If you have any more questions just PM-also cuz I may have some Australia OR questions.