PDXOR

Look for RN OR residencies. Most places will not hire you directly into the OR without experience and these residencies can be your ticket to entry. Otherwise look into starting at a surgery center. They normally don't require experience and will train you.

How long is your orientation to the OR for an unexperienced RN? We do not hire RNs directly to the OR. We have a RN residency they can apply to which runs for 6 months. How long is your orientation to the OR for an experienced RN? Depends on the kind of experience the RN is coming in with. No OR experience but experience in different departments would still require them to go through our 6-month residency. Surgery center experience with no hospital experience tends to be a 3-4 month orientation. Hospital OR experience tends to be 1-3 months. I like for everyone to be able to touch on every specialty at least once before being off of orientation even with experience. What specialties are they orienting to (all, some, scrub, circ, both)? Orientated to circulate all specialties. May include scrubbing if they need a minimal amount of orientation for circulating.

I agree with this. I started second guessing if I wanted to be a nurse my sophomore year of college and wished I would have listened to myself. I found the subjects I studied fascinating but hated actually working on the floor. People kept telling me to stick with it and try it out for a few years. Thankfully, my last clinical in nursing school was in the OR and that gave me a taste of a different type of nursing. I'm happy working as a nurse in the OR but if I could go back in time I would not pursue nursing.

I have never worked in an OR solely for pediatric patients but in general I have worked with really kind surgeons and I've worked with a few unkind surgeons. I wouldn't let your fear of the surgeons stop you from trying out the OR! You'll learn how to handle all of their personalities. The OR is a whole new beast and you'll feel like a new grad all over again. You'll definitely run into high intensity situations and will constantly be learning new things. I think it is great that you have already seen a few surgeries! It gives you a slight taste of what to except as a circulator in the OR.

I've noticed that most people have gotten into management because they were in the right place at the right time or they know the right people. Do you currently work somewhere? If so, I'd start sharing your desire to grow professionally with your current management team.

Welcome to the OR!

Trauma experience is great but what is more important is learning the foundation of being an OR nurse. You don't need trauma experience to do that. I know a lot of nurses that were never formally trained to scrub but picked it up after working in the OR for a few years. Taking this job does not mean you'll never learn to scrub or won't be hireable at a hospital that does trauma later down the road. I know so many new grads desperate to get into the OR. It tends to be a tough specialty to get into. I'd take the job if it is being offered and the OR is where you want to be.

Yes, I know plenty of nurses that only know how to circulate. They have never had an issue finding a job. It differs from hospital to hospital on whether they will train you to scrub. My facility is open to teaching nurses to scrub but we have been short staffed lately so we have had to put that on the back burner.

My recommendation is to use your job to leave a good impression on the nurses/scrub techs and management. Ask questions, be eager to learn, have a good attitude, etc. If they see that you're a good employee the chances of them wanting to hire you later down the road significantly increases. My hospital currently has a OR tech that is working on becoming a RN. She's a great employee and has made a really great impression while working here. She's pretty much guaranteed a job once she graduates.

No matter what state you work in knowing how to circulate and scrub makes you more marketable. That being said I know many hospitals are not training nurses in the scrub role.

I agree with all of this! Every surgery is built off the basics. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Remember that a surgery will never go forever even if it feels like it will. You'll get through it!

I believe it. There's enough NCLEX prep books, classes, and/or other resources that you could use to study from. If someone really wanted to put in the time to do this I could see them passing the NCLEX. Also, I have never had a job ask me what my GPA was.

I agree with the previous comments. Take this as a learning experience, reflect/make changes, and don't give up. I have a co-worker who was let go from her first nursing job, which she thought was her "dream" job. She ended up finding a nursing job that she was better suited for and has been in that specialty for 20 years.

Ask your co-workers what others have done when they have lived outside the call time. It's a common issue and they should have a few ideas for you. When I mentioned I lived outside the 30 minute call time a few co-workers offered up their couches without having to ask.

At your hospital are pregnant nurses exempt from taking care of covid patients or patients that do not have a confirmed negative result? I work in a small OR and we have two pregnant nurses that have doctors notes saying they can't take care of patients that do not have a negative covid test. A lot of our on-call cases are patients that have results pending and they are saying they can't take call because of this. It is a small OR and having 2 nurses out of the call schedule is taking a toll. We test our scheduled surgical patients 48 hours in advance, which means they do have a window of opportunity to catch covid before surgery.