Operating Room vs. Med Surg Decision Tool

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Specializes in Perioperative / RN Circulator.

This may be useful to someone thinking about switching to the OR from med surg (or other floor nursing position), or a new grad deciding between a first job on the floor vs a Periop internship.

This was created by my brother-in-law, who is in his 2nd year as an Perioperative RN (circulator) following 2 1/2 years on a med-surg telemetry unit at a 225 bed urban acute care hospital, and 3 years as staff nurse then house charge nurse at a 285 bed LTC. He made it to help him decide whether to stay on Med-Surg telemetry or take a Periop internship.

Some of the items are personal to him (like which schedule is more conducive to church attendance) or specific to the facility; but I hope it may still be of use. (Shared with his permission.)

OR-vs-MS.xlsx

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I just came across this while looking for OR forums since I'll be starting a OR fellowship program soon...this is awesome, thanks so much for sharing!! Seems to be many pros to the OR...now I'm curious, if you don't mind me asking, does he like working in the OR!?

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Specializes in Perioperative / RN Circulator.
On 8/31/2020 at 5:47 PM, cr71890 said:

I just came across this while looking for OR forums since I'll be starting a OR fellowship program soon...this is awesome, thanks so much for sharing!! Seems to be many pros to the OR...now I'm curious, if you don't mind me asking, does he like working in the OR!?

Sorry, I only recently saw your reply.  To answer your question, he loves the OR.

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Thank you for letting me know! That's what I was hoping to hear : )

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Hello! Came across your post after doing some googling. I'm a recent new grad RN with 3 years of LPN experience. I'm in somewhat of a dilemma currently because I was offered a Tele position at a hospital but I see that they also have a periop position. I had never considered OR nursing before as I hadn't been exposed to it in the past but the more research I did the more Intrigued I was. My question is do you think it would be a mistake to not get floor experience before applying to the OR? Doe your brother still seem to enjoy it there?

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
Israel007 said:

do you think it would be a mistake to not get floor experience before applying to the OR?

You're going to find a lot of opinions on both sides of the road about working in med/surg before specializing. Here's mine:

Med/surg is a specialty in its own right and is not/should not be a prerequisite for other areas of nursing. The OR is so different from other areas of nursing that whether one has nursing experience in another unit or are a new grad, both start at the same level. In fact, in my experience, several of those with nursing experience elsewhere actually struggle when transitioning to the OR because they go from being proficient or an expert in their area all the way back down to novice. It's a bit of a hit to the ego.

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Thank you so much for this information it is definitely helpful. I see that you have experience in the OR. Do nurses ever transfer out to different units ? Like can a person with only OR experience succeed in somewhere like the ED? Or are they happy enough in the OR that they never leave LOL?

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