PaulBaxter

At my hospital they train all the new OR nurses to scrub and circulate. We have few scrub techs, but in my department, for instance, I think there are are only five scrubs and about twenty five nurses. I'd be happy to PM you the name of the hospital if you like. We're a level 1 trauma hospital attached to a big university, if that appeals to you. We're also in a compact state. Currently they have a two year contract for new OR nurses if that's an issue for you.

I'm about 3.5 months into my orientation, so I can describe my experiences a bit. We started with three weeks of intensive classes on all the basics of the OR (sterile technique, equipment, supplies, etc.). I was hired on to the neuro team, so the next steps were to go into the OR to get on the job practice with preceptors. My department doesn't have dedicated preceptors, so I just get paired up with whoever on any particular day. We have three different area within our neuro team: pediatric, spine, and craniotomy. I have to complete two weeks circulating and two weeks scrubbing in each area (I'm almost done with this part). Then I have a few weeks exposure to some of the other services (I believe mostly ENT and ortho), then I return to the neuro group for two more weeks in each of our three areas again. I should add that I felt very underprepared after those first three weeks. There's a huge amount of information to learn about equipment, supplies, instruments, procedures, surgeon preferences, positioning, etc. It just takes a lot of time and effort to learn all that stuff.

If you'd like to know something about the path to becoming a surgeon, there are some good books about that. I recommend Hot Lights, Cold Steel, by Michael J Collins (which is also the most entertaining book I've read by a doctor), or When The Air Hits Your Brain, by Frank Vertosick. Both of those talk about what it's like going through a surgical residency. If you'd prefer to be an OR nurse, just find your way into nursing school. Once you get near the end, apply to programs for OR training for new nurses. If you'd like to be a scrub tech, you'll have to hunt around for a program for that. Not quite as many schools available for that, but there might be one near you.

Just because it appeared in some NCLEX prep material doesn't automatically make it correct. I would just leave it alone and move on.

Obviously there's one one appropriate response to this. Every time you see her, compliment her loudly on how WIDE her scope is. "Dang girl, you're scope is looking mighty wide today." "I have to confess, I've always liked to girl with a wide scope." etc.

Rose_Queen, Well, I did get into this with the hope of making some money with overtime pay. I think medical resident hours would be a bit excessive though. At least for me. I like to sleep sometimes.

I think they said $3 for on call time. It isn't much, but there are lots of jobs out there that don't pay anything for being on call, so I just think of it as a bonus.

You what??!!!?? I'm starting my OR job in February, and I've been idly wondering about call schedule, but honestly I don't care that much. I know I won't be taking call until I at least finish initial training, plus I'm looking forward to the extra money. I know how much I'll get paid for on call time, and the unit manager assured me that staff members can trade call time with each other. As long as I can once in a while get some time off, I should be good. (There's some weird part of me looking forward to that first middle of the night call.)

I'm finishing up an evening nursing program. Nearly everyone in my class works full time. Just to let you know we started with 29 and we'll probably end with 12, so lots of people didn't make it. But it can be done.

You might want to consider dialysis nursing. Sounds to me like it would fit the bill pretty well. Plenty of work out there.

I have to disagree with some of those who say this wouldn't help. I went through nursing school (graduate in two weeks) without having a medical related job, so I really wanted to get something on my resume from the hospital other than just my clinical experience. At the beginning of the year I signed up to volunteer at my closest hospital. They placed me in the oncology unit, where oddly enough I was currently doing a clinical rotation. My duties there were to talk to patients, help with discharges, do some light cleaning and stocking, help out the unit manager with projects like employee recognition, and just generally be a gofer. I did things other people didn't have time for, like check all the expiration dates in the nourishment room and clean the coffee machine. I got to know the nurses, management, and other staff pretty well. The volunteer center had a policy to write job recommendations for any of the volunteers. The unit manager also wrote a recommendation for me, and those both proved to be critical for me in the job application process, since some of the jobs I was applying for had some strict requirements about who could write recommendations. The unit was even nice enough to throw me a small party when I finished my time there. So in my case at least volunteering was a huge advantage.

Hiya, I can only answer some of your questions, but hopefully enough to help a bit. Cone Health is a hospital system. If you are accepted in one of the new grad academies (as they spell it out on the site), you could end up with a job placement at any of those hospitals. I'm about to graduate myself, and pretty much all of my clinical experiences were within the Cone Health system. Overall I was was quite pleased with my experiences there. Moses Cone is the flagship hospital in Greensboro and the largest of the group. Cone is not a teaching hospital in the sense that is is not part of a university system. You won't see many med students or residents there, although I'm told they are around occasionally. They do seem to be fairly organized about training new grads, so you don't have to worry about being hired and just dumped onto a floor unprepared. I can't really speak about pay and benefits. I'm told they pay more than some of the other hospital systems in the state, but I haven't seen numbers myself. Moses Cone has a Peds ED. The other hospitals don't. If you want NICU, you'll probably be at Women's Hospital. They are a free standing hospital, though I'm told they may be moving at some point. I don't really really know much else about the pediatric side of things. Can't comment on where to live. Greensboro is a fairly big city with the same sorts of issues you'd find in any city. Some nice restaurants, some problem areas. I'm about 40 miles away so I don't know the place intimately. Some other big hospital systems to check out in NC are UNC, Duke, Baptist in Winston Salem, and Carolinas Healthcare in the Charlotte area. Novant Health also has hospitals in both the Winston Salem area and the Charlotte area. All of those have new grad programs, though you might have passed some deadlines for some of them.

I don't have any personal experience with Rex, though I've heard good things. But I'll be starting at Duke in February. You'd be welcome to be my friend I'm sure I'm a lot older than you, but if you decide to go with Duke and live in or around Durham I can give you a few pointers. It's a great place and if you have any social skills at all I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends in no time. Feel free to send me a pm if you there's anything I can help you with.

I'm a not quite yet new grad in NC. I can tell you a little about an offer I got. As a CNI I would get a base pay just over $23. Night diff is $5.50, weekend is $9, and weekend evening is $14.50. They also offer a relocation grant for moving out of state. I don't know what they might offer you based on experience, but I imagine if you wanted to work nights you could probably match what you're making. In terms of hospital systems I am at all familiar with: Duke is a large teaching/research hospital system. Great for experiencing all the latest and greatest. UNC is also a pretty big teaching hospital. They are reputed to pay better. Hiring process seems to take longer though. Cone Health is where I had most of my clinical experiences. The main hospital is quite large. Not a teaching hospital, but very professional. Can't comment on working conditions since I haven't started yet. I happen to think North Carolina is a lovely place to live. Nice natural beauty, has both nice beaches and mountain resorts. Economically growing. A little slower pace of life than in the north, but still multicultural. Fairly nice weather despite the occasional ice storm or hurricane. I live in a smaller town between the Triangle are (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) and the Triad (Greensboro/High Point/ Winston Salem). I like being a little outside of traffic. If you like city life, you might like Raleigh or Charlotte. If you like smaller towns, there are plenty within decent driving range of the hospitals. Durham is a very interesting town. Lots going on there, although there's also some standard city problems (crime/drugs/bad government). Same goes for Greensboro for that matter.

Just putting it out there that I'm in this same boat: graduating in December and hoping to find an OR residency program. If any happens to know that their hospital has an OR residency, AND that they accept ADN grads, feel free to send me a PM. I may be willing to move if needed.