placements and onboard the new students. It's not unreasonable that
the nurse who runs point on the program works at your facility on a
part-time basis because the demands of such a program are so great.
Many colleges have what they call "skills labs," but these have noth-
ing to do with the OR. They're just a place for taking blood pressure
or learning to read vital signs. To give students the hands-on experi-
ence they need to be successful, we work around this problem by
using our hospital's simlab, which I use to build a fake OR case, so
students can practice prepping as they would in real-life situations.
Reach out locally. Get in touch with the department of nursing
leadership at local colleges and universities in your area.
Chances are, you'll find somebody who's willing to build a collabora-
tive relationship. And thanks to organizations like AORN, all the edu-
cational tools you need are right there and ready to go. We used
AORN's Periop 101 materials. The college purchased a subscription
based on how many seats we believed we could fill, and I assigned the
courses as students registered.
You need access to a place where you can do hands-on training. You
also need to tell the college you partner with exactly what you'll need
— everything from gowning and gloving to scrubbing to instrument
kits. The college will have to account for a budget for these things.
And this is in addition to what they'll spend on the course materials.
Pre-screen accordingly. This program is almost like an infor-
mal, extended interview process. You get to see how quickly the
students learn, what their personality is like and whether they're like-
ly to be a good fit for your team. You get to ask questions like "Are
they learning quickly enough to make it in our OR?" — and you can
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