perioperative nurse internship program?

[christySN]

I am a nursing student that will graduate in May 2004. The large university medical center where I attend school and work part time as a patient care tech has a perioperative services nurse internship program for new grads. It provides 2 weeks of theory and basic skills, one month of clinicals in preop, one month in the OR and one month in post-op. Then you choose one of those three areas and receive 3 months of orientation with a preceptor. Does this sound like a good training program? Can a new grad be successful in perioperative services without working on the floor first? I would appreciate any advice experienced periop nurses have. thank you.

[sharann, BSN, RN]

I don't know the answer because I was a new grad Tele nurse for about a year befortransferring to PACU. I do not float between pre-op, OR and PACU. I know that all our OR nurses save 2 never worked anywhere else besides OR and could never function anywhere else unless given a lengthy orientation. I could on the other hand can be cross trained to ICU?CCU, Tele(been there) pre-op, med-surg or Maternity if wanted(I do not). So I think it depend on how much you learn and how willing they are to train you. It sounds like a great oppurtunity though!

[orrnlori, RN]

I must have missed this question. YES, you can be a good OR nurse right out of school. I only worked 6 months in trauma before I came to the OR. I was green as a gourd. My training program was much more intense than what you described. Ours was 7 months full time classroom, then observing, then assisting, then learning to scrub, then rotating through the different services, then finally getting through it and getting our own rooms. I would have to assume that since you are in a large university setting (so am I) they have it down to a science in training. Go for it. You'll either love it or hate it. I like it that you have the opportunity to see the whole thing. Ours was OR only, but that's where my interest was so it worked out great.

[christySN]

Thanks for your reply. I am going to do a 5 hour "job shadow" in the OR tomorrow. The manager encourages those interested in the OR to do a job shadow first before interviewing for the perioperative nurse internship. I am looking forward to seeing the OR again since I only had one day in the OR during clinicals (that was last summer). I know this won't be enough to really tell if the OR is the right fit for me but I am hoping it will help in the decision making process.

[orrnlori, RN]

Really really watch what goes on in the OR. Do the doctor's treat the nurses well? You have an opportunity here to really see a day in full swing. Take advantage of it. Hopefully they will pair you with a nurse who knows her stuff, can answer any questions you have and still make the case run smooth as glass. I noticed the one and only day I was in the OR during clinicals how the doctors treated the nurses, it made my decision for me. Had I seen anyone acting ugly, I probably wouldn't have decided on the OR THAT DAY, but it went so well that I knew from that day on, it was what I wanted to do.