OR nursing--- career killer???

[Baileyhoffman]

I'm about to start semester 4/5 of nursing school and the one place that's grabbed my heart and hasn't let go is the OR. I've been told numerous times that going straight from nursing school into a job at the OR is a "terrible idea" and a "career killer." What do you guys think? I LOVED it, but I'm split between doing what is good for my career vs what I really want. Will it look bad on my resume? I understand it's not really as "nurse-y" as the other types but i just love it so much... it's something I could actually see myself getting up and going to work for every day. I also hope to travel with this.

Any thoughts? Any opinion would help. Thank you!

[ItsThatJenGirl, CNA]

I think you should do what makes you happy. I also think a nurse is a nurse is a nurse.

[AliNajaCat]

Well, a nurse isn't a nurse isn't a nurse, in terms of being interchangeable in all settings (the now-discredited "warm body theory of staffing"), LOL.

OR nursing IS nursing, and I dare anybody to walk into an OR and argue the point with any OR nurse. It's not just dealing with inert bodies as a surgeon extender by any stretch. You can have a quite satisfying nursing career in the OR, and don't let anybody tell you differently.

[brownbook]

A med/surg nurse is exposed to a wide variety of patients and treatments. Cancer patients, dialysis patients, cardiac, respiratory, ortho, surgical, etc. A med/surg nurse may be able to more easily cross train to other areas of nursing.

But in reality every area of nursing is specialized. If you go straight into L&D or PSYCH you really "can't" work any other area of nursing. Same is realistically true of OR.

If you love OR work OR. I have always found OR to be the one specialty where even when there is a glut of nurses, OR's have to hire travelers because an experienced OR circulator is hard to find.

You can look in the jobs posting of Allnurses and see how many jobs are out there for OR nurses.

Where I work, ambulatory surgery, one OR nurse asked, and was allowed, to work PACU if staffing allowed just because she wanted to keep up on other nursing skills.

[ItsThatJenGirl, CNA]

Well, a nurse isn't a nurse isn't a nurse, in terms of being interchangeable in all settings (the now-discredited "warm body theory of staffing"), LOL.

OR nursing IS nursing, and I dare anybody to walk into an OR and argue the point with any OR nurse. It's not just dealing with inert bodies as a surgeon extender by any stretch. You can have a quite satisfying nursing career in the OR, and don't let anybody tell you differently.

That's what I meant, I should have worded it better.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

A med/surg nurse is exposed to a wide variety of patients and treatments. Cancer patients, dialysis patients, cardiac, respiratory, ortho, surgical, etc. A med/surg nurse may be able to more easily cross train to other areas of nursing.

But in reality every area of nursing is specialized. If you go straight into L&D or PSYCH you really "can't" work any other area of nursing. Same is realistically true of OR.

If you love OR work OR. I have always found OR to be the one specialty where even when there is a glut of nurses, OR's have to hire travelers because an experienced OR circulator is hard to find.

You can look in the jobs posting of Allnurses and she how many jobs are out there for OR nurses.

Where I work, ambulatory surgery, one OR nurse asked, and was allowed, to work PACU if staffing allowed just because she wanted to keep up on other nursing skills.

I work in an elective plastic surgery OR (but background was ICU). All of us work PRN in other areas of nursing: I do endo, one does pain/GI lab, and the other one does PACU. It helps to keep us marketable. But I will admit that the OR doesn't have a full daily schedule, so we have the time to work in other areas.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

I have worked with OR nurses who have gone on to succeed in other specialties: hospice, home health, med/surg, ICU, office settings. Yes, you will likely lose some of the skills learned in nursing school. However, they can be relearned. What seems to matter most when changing specialties is attitude of the nurse, adequate orientation, and support from the new coworkers. We do have a saying about OR nursing, though: either you love it and never leave or you hate it and can't wait to get out. Most nurses who enter the OR and continue to enjoy it will likely retire from the OR. Personally, my plan is to continue working bedside in the OR until I can no longer get down on my hands and knees hunting for needles smaller than my eyelashes. Then, I'll move into an educator position dealing with periop.

[ladyvp05]

My sister started in the OR and worked there for 3 years. She has since worked med-surg, mental health, home health, and now she's working in rehab. It hasn't killed her career at all. I almost gave up on my dream of working in the OR bc of people telling me that I would hurt my career, but I followed my heart and I currently work in the OR. I love it.