Sergio
What is the hardest part of becoming an Operating Room Nurse and what is the hardest part of being a Perioperative Room Nurse Is there any change in experience when transition from a Registered Nurse with either an associate or bachelor's degrees to a Perioperative Room Nurse?
I am a high school senior and already applied and accepted by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. I am planning to go into the nursing pathway, and I am also interested in the nursing specialty of becoming an Operating Room Nurse. The reason why I am so interested is because when I was eleven years old, I contracted appendicitis and had to get it surgically removed before it killed me. This soon caused me to have an interest in the nursing field because of the nurses who took care of me after my procedure to remove my appendix, and I become interested in the operating room ever since when I grew older. In addition, I did my research when I was and currently am part of the volunteer program at Doctor Hospital at Renaissance where I partook since Freshman year of high school and I was stationed in various departments such as Rehab Center, Patient Experience, Medical Telemetry, Rehab Department, Outpatient Center in Gastroenterology, and Employee Education department during my participation in the volunteer program. I have learned a lot of information about the hospital setting by shadowing the hospital staff, but have ultimately decided to go into the Nursing pathway and specifically the operating room and I am wondering if there is something's I should know about before going into this pathway and following my career goal specialty of an Operating Room Nurse?
1 answer
Tonya Lawrence, PhD, MSN, RNC, CNM
Tonya’s Answer
Congratulations on being accepted to nursing school. Nursing school is a rewarding and challenging experience. Take each reward and challenge as a way to grow professionally and personally. You will start to touch the lives of others pretty early in school.
For your interest in the OR. Here are a few things to know and consider.
There is a national nursing organization for OR or referred to in the field as perioperative (periop) nursing. The name of the organization is the Association of perioperative registered nurses. The link to the website is in my references below. You can freely click in the website to learn about the specialty. Because you already have a strong interest, I would recommend joining the organization in nursing school. It can be your fun as you learn about the specialty and make connections with RNs in the field. Part of being a nurse is the importance of professional organizations keeping us updated on our specialty and profession, and contribute to the practice of nursing.
During nursing school, there may be an opportunity for a senior clinical rotation (e.g. capstone). This is where you have the opportunity to select clinical experiences in specialties of interest. This is a great opportunity to request an experience in perioperative services. This could be within the hospital or in an ambulatory setting (outside the hospital). The opportunity provides you experience with an RN, and right at the OR bedside to see what occurs and how the team work together.
Safety! In the OR you are working with scalpels, needles, and other very sharp objects. Learning how to handle the devices with skill is of utmost importance. The risk of a sharp injury can seriously impact you, the patient and team. Each nursing specialty has its risk. This is just one of the important ones in periop.
Depending on where you work, there may be oncall hours. Sometimes people think only doctors and plumbers are oncall for emergencies. Periop nurses can also be on call. This is where nurses go into the hospital for emergency surgeries outside of regularly scheduled surgeries. Many nurses stay in periop for years and learn how to adjust their personal and professional schedules to be oncall.
One more opportunity in the periop specialty is to become a first assist RN. This is where RNs assist the provider during surgery. I have also included the AORN website to learn more about becoming a first assist RN.
The information I provided does not provide all of the wonderful resources of periop nursing. However, I hope it gives you a start.
I wish you all the best.
References:
*Association of perioperative Registered Nurses (2025). Website: https://www.aorn.org/
*Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses. RN First Assistant-RNFA.
Website: https://www.aorn.org/guidelines-resources/clinical-resources/rn-first-assistant-resources
I appreciate this, thank you for the advice.
Sergio