There’s something unique about the patient advocacy that happens in an operating room.
No matter the setting or specialty, nurses are always fierce patient advocates, ensuring that patients’ health and safety are protected. But when patients are under anesthesia, it’s different.
“Everywhere else in the hospital, patient’s families can be there with them, but they cannot be in the operating room,” says Debbie Smith, Senior Clinical Manager at Association of periOperative Registered Nurses. “The biggest role we have is the role of the patient advocate.”
Perioperative or operating room (OR) nurses provide hands-on patient care throughout a surgical experience – before, during and after a patient’s procedure. These nurses play an essential role in patient safety, and the need for perioperative nurses is expected to grow 6% from 2018-2028.
In addition to providing high-quality, team-based, patient-centric care, working in a variety of settings and across various specialties, this dynamic, exciting and highly rewarding specialty has ample opportunities for professional growth.
However, until recently, many nursing students did not gain exposure to perioperative nursing as a specialty in nursing school. To raise awareness among nursing students and early-career nurses about the exciting career possibilities of perioperative nursing and to ensure readiness to practice, AORN has released a new perioperative nursing elective curriculum for nursing schools to assist RNs entering the perioperative field.
To actively and accurately demonstrate what perioperative nurses do and the environment that they work in, Johnson & Johnson has collaborated with the Association of PeriOperative Nurses and Bon Secours Mercy Health to produce a new perioperative nursing video. The intent is to increase awareness of and spark interest in the specialty, highlighting real perioperative nurses who share what it’s really like to work in the OR, why they love the specialty, and the benefits of becoming a perioperative nurse.
“Johnson & Johnson understands the need to generate awareness about this critical specialty and is proud to collaborate with the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) and Bon Secours Mercy Health to amplify this dynamic and high-demand profession,” said Lynda Benton, Senior Director, Global Community Impact, Johnson & Johnson. “OR nurses are essential to patient safety and access to quality care, and we are proud to share this inspiring look at the many possibilities of a career in perioperative nursing.”
More Exposure and Training Opportunities
While nursing programs vary, many nursing students experience limited exposure to the perioperative specialty in nursing school.
“You would typically get a day to observe, and some nurses never get to even do a rotation,” Smith said. “Once you get into the OR, you never want to leave. It’s a really nice work environment, but nurses don’t know that until they get there.”
In 2021, AORN partnered with Chamberlain University to pilot new undergraduate education to broaden awareness of surgical nursing. Now available to all nursing schools, Introduction to Perioperative Nursing is an undergraduate course for nursing students and provides essential knowledge of operating practices throughout the continuum of care for surgical patients.
Health systems are also innovating to improve awareness and skills for nurses. AORN’s Periop 101: A Core Curriculum is used in health systems to successfully standardize onboarding for RNs entering the perioperative specialty. Further, many health systems offer additional perioperative training and residency programs onsite to set new nurses up for success in this vital role.
At Bon Secours Mercy Health, perioperative nurses leverage the AORN Periop 101 curriculum, as well as additional resources and tools from the association. The system also employs a training model called the tiered skills acquisition model, in which an orientee assumes increased responsibility gradually by advancing through skill tiers ranging from simple to complex.
“As you get to Level 5, it begins to broaden and build even more breadth and depth in clinical judgement, critical thinking, and interprofessional collaboration, for deeper, more advanced skills,” said Pam Hash, Chief Nursing Officer at Bon Secours Mercy Health and Vice President of Nursing Professional Practice, Education, and Research.
This framework has been particularly successful in onboarding new nurses, Hash said, especially paired with ‘Preceptor Academy’ courses that strengthen on-the-job instruction, as well as skill development days, which ensure hands-on experience with procedures or processes that new nurses may have only studied.
These types of programs are becoming more standardized as health systems and associations look to build a strong pipeline of perioperative nurses and ensure the highest quality surgical care.
“The operative space is limitless,” Hash said. “Every day, we’re getting more advanced, with greater technology. But despite the technologically advanced environment, we never forget that it’s human beings we care for, and I believe the nurse is the person who is most critical to keeping the humanity, the compassion, the caring and the understanding of the human lived experience of a surgical procedure.”
Click here to hear firsthand from the perioperative nurses at Bon Secours Mercy Health, and read on for more information about this exciting, important specialty.
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