OR interview questions

[DeLynn, RN]

I have an interview for the OR coming up. I'm a RN and currently work on a med-surg floor, and bid on a full time w/call position within the same hospital.

I was wondering what types of questions to ask. I'm not sure if the RN's circulate and scrub or just circulate. Obviously I need to ask about the orientation, but what others questions are good? OR is so different from med-surg. I KNOW I don't want to do med-surg forever, and the OR has always interested me.

Thanks

[IsseyM]

1. Will i be orienting in all the services (General, Ortho, Neuro, Vascular, Cysto, Hearts, Women's, Ambulatory -if applicable) Will i have a different or same preceptor for each service?

2. If so how long will orientation be for each service?

3. What shifts are available?

4. How many hours of call will i have to take per week? How soon after i've completed my orientation will i be required to take call? How much more is it (wages) for calls.

5. How many cases (average) does the OR do in a day?

6. Once i'm on my own how many cases (average) will i circulate during my shift?

7. Are there any opportunities for advancement? For example at my hospital we have Clinical Nurse Leaders for each service.

8. Are textbooks required for orientation? If so, do you provide textbooks for my orientation or will i have to purchase them?

If you don't know already, you may also want to ask if you have to recover your own patients or if you drop them off and give report to a PACU nurse. I've heard in some hospitals how the OR nurses have to recover their own patients. Our hospital we just take them to PACU, then go see our next patient in Pre-op. So far this is all i can think of right now. Hope this helps.

IsseyM

[heather2084, BSN]

those are good, but there are lots of these types of threads around. I'm sure if you do a little search you'll come up with even more great stuff

[hotdog19d]

I have an OR interview tomorrow, thanks!!

[passionate]

Good Luck Good Luck