OR Interview this week....HELP!!

[NorthStarRN]

Hi there,

I have been a nurse for a little over a year now and have been working on med/surg....now I applied for an internal opening in surgery, and have an interview this week....wondering if any of you experiened OR nurses can give me some ideas of what to expect....what questions I should ask etc.... I am excited and very very nervous....going from med-surg to OR is definitely a challenge :)

Thanks :)

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Questions you should ask:

-What shift? Is it a rotation?

-What specialty? Is it only one or will you rotate through all of them?

- What does orientation consist of? How long is it, and is there an option to evaluate need for an extended orientation?

-Will you be assigned to a single preceptor or will you have more than one?-Call requirements. How much and how long? (Our main OR is split into 8 and 12 hour blocks with every third weekend, ortho is only weekends, and heart team is end of shift to beginning of next shift with every fourth weekend). What is the response time? (30 minutes seems to be standard in my area, but I've heard of some as short as 15 minutes and as long as 45 minutes.)

- Can I shadow for a day or two? Definitely won't teach you to be an OR nurse, but will give you an idea of how things work.