RN or Surgical Tech?

Only you can answer the question. Why did you become a LVN.....an interest in nursing/medicine, helping people, a secure job that can't be outsourced, decent pay, what were your reasons? Did you enjoy school?

Why does the OR interest you? Do you have factual knowledge about OR's or just what you have seen on TV shows? Do you like OR hours...usually Monday to Friday, kind of 8 - 5?

You do not want to work med/surg or ER....and of course you know there are 8 - 20 different units, areas to work, in acute care hospitals.

If your only exposure to bedside nursing was working in a skilled nursing facility...that is a very hard, rough, exposure to nursing. I couldn't work in one.

I apologize for not being more detailed. I know there are other places to work. I became an LPN for all of the reasons you listed. I very much enjoyed school. I feel like I enjoyed learning about nursing more than actually doing it. I feel that I am not as much of a leader as I need to be to be a nurse. In LPN school, we did clinicals in the OR and I loved it. The human anatomy really interests me and I loved the thrill of watching the surgeon. I honestly didn't know the OR hours. We did not do clinicals long there (just two days for me).

No need to apologise. I prefer short direct questions.

Seems like you have a valid sincere interest in OR. That makes it harder to answer!

Maybe ask the moderators to move your question to operating room nursing. Or just repost your question there.

I would do the LPN-RN, get some OR experience and then go for your first assist. This way, if you decide hmm maybe OR isn't what you thought it would be you have many more options as an RN. As a surgical tech you can be a surgical tech, that's about it. I am also guessing surgical tech pay isn't as good either.

Annie

Go for the RN. Nothing wrong with being a ST, but there's nowhere to go from there. As an RN, you can scrub or circulate and get much better pay. As an RN you can also move up the ladder one day if you want. Plus if you do decide to move on to a different specialty one day you can.

Surg techs truly only have the one job function. I've known NUMEROUS scrubs to go back for nursing.

If you only want to work in the OR, perhaps you can get the ST first, and then continue working towards getting your RN. You will probably have an easier time getting an RN OR job if you have that experience already. But, it would increase the time before becoming an RN. I'm also not sure about costs. Some employers would help you get your RN if you want to continue working there. If you can get the ST while getting other RN prereqs done, that would be good. But, everything is money and time. It may be easier to go to school if you work "regular" hours (m-f day shift).