3 week OR preceptorship

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Hi all,

I am very lucky to have the opportunity to choose which hospital and specialty I want to experience a 3 week preceptorship at during my final semester of nursing school next spring where you are paired with a nurse and follow her schedule.

It is pretty much like a long job interview with a chance to impress and receive a job offer. I know I have lots of time to decide but I am very interested in OR nursing. I know it is a different animal altogether. The issue is I have been hearing from last year's students that even with the preceptorship it is difficult to get hired as a new grad in the OR. This makes me feel like choosing the OR experience would end up being a wasted opportunity.

What do you all think? Should I go for it anyway or pick another specialty that I have a good chance of getting hired for?

Thanks in advance.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Nursing studies have shown that Perioperative nurses (OR) have very high levels of job satisfaction and are much less likely to switch to other specialties. It does take quite a while to become competent in this area. New grad training programs are usually ~ 6 months long. Each different area of surgery requires additional training.

Any organization that hires new grads into periop jobs will provide structured training- but it may not be called a 'residency'. This is not an area in which "sink or swim" is an option.

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Interesting info, thank you. I will do some more digging and find out how things work at the hospital I'm interested in doing the preceptorship at.

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