Trying to obtain OR position any advice

[mswim]

I graduated nursing school in Dec 2008 and started a position on a Medical-Surgical Floor since everyone states you need that year to ground your skills. I was really interested in OR, or possibly ICU. I tend to be a really detailed oriented OCD person. I have done my year and hate med-surg. After I got my years experience I tried to get an OR position since that is really what I wanted to do anyway. The hospital I worked at now is not hiring due to decreased case load with the economy. I interviewed for a spot for a course at another hospital, but the grad from their own school get to do a specialized clinical experience, and the one who got accepted for the perioperative nursing course did this clinical experience. I called the manager to express my interest in the position, and volunteered to do a internship of volunteer in OR for more exposure time. She stated that they did not have that at her facility. I called my school that I graduated from and got the same thing. No OR internship. There only advice was that I could go back to school for 12 months to be a surg tech and that would give me the edge. I don't have the money to stop working for a year, and come out more in debt and no job. The only thing I could think of was to take the intro courses to surg tech at my local community college. It a course which is introduction to OR, and lab that teaches aseptic technique and draping, and positioning. Any other ideas? I just wish I hadn't listened to everyone and done med-surg. I could be in an OR position right now.

[MamaCheese]

Is the community college course the AORN Periop 101? Does it give you clinical hours in the OR? If so, it should give you an advantage when applying for OR positions. Hiring someone with no OR experience is a pretty big risk for hospitals. The orientation for the OR is long and costly and if they hire someone totally green they don't know if their investment in you is going to pay off. Our OR Residency program at our hospital typically loses at least 1/2 of its orientees by the time they hit the floor on their own.

[mswim]

No this class does not include OR time. I have tried on several avenues to get OR by doing and internship and no one wants to have anything to do with it. The class is part of surg tech curriculum so it is not a AORN course. I have been on the AORN website. The hospitals listed there with 101 courses are not hiring or it is the one I a applied for that I did not get into because of the class I talked about in my earlier post.

[carluvscats]

If you are willing to move, you might consider OR positions in other states. I have seen ads where experience is not a requirement.

[mswim]

what states? They perioperative course that I applied for did not require experience on the job either. I am saying these other applicants had some specialized clinical time in OR which I cannot get.

[carluvscats]

Ok, I gotcha. One of the websites I use is ~ Wisconsin Hospitals and Medical Centers * WI

Once you get there, scroll all the way to the bottom for listings of hospitals in the 50 states. I've found some of the links to be broken, but many still seem to be working.

Good luck!