Surgical Nurses = please help!

[Wanna_BA_Nurse]

Can I be emplyed as a surgical nurse if I get my RN and then certify as a surgical technician? What do I have to do to be a surgical nurse? Thanks for any and all advice!

~ Vanessa :redbeathe

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

You don't actually need to certify to become a surgical nurse. Some hospitals accept new grads into the OR and some require a year of med-surg first. If that's what you want to do, check out several hospitals, shadow a nurse, and see what kind of orientation they offer.

A surgical tech is someone who scrubs into surgery and handles the instruments. Unlike a nurse, they can't readily transfer to other departments in the hospital except the sterile processing department. Also, most hospitals have surg techs scrub and nurses circulate because the pay for STs is much lower.

There's also lots of info in the OR forum, and you can check out the webpage for the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses at http://www.aorn.org