ers.
• Challenges. Not every OR works the same way — especially when
nurses are transitioning between inpatient and outpatient environ-
ments — so it can be challenging to get nurses who come from other
facilities to meet the standards you've established. Nurses who have
worked in other surgical facilities might need to break old habits and
create new ones.
The pace of outpatient surgery can also be jarring to nurses who are
used to working in inpatient ORs. It's a good idea to have nurses with
inpatient experience shadow a current member of your staff for a day
so they can see firsthand what the job entails before accepting a posi-
tion. You also have to have honest conversations about your case vol-
umes and the types of procedures you perform. If you don't share that
information during the interview process, nurses with surgical back-
grounds will make assumptions based on what they've experienced in
other facilities.
RNs without OR experience
• Advantages. These RNs under-
stand the processes of nursing and
have real-world working knowl-
edge. If they're seeking to change
the focus of their career, there's a
good chance they're trying to ful-
fill a passion for working in sur-
gery. I've interviewed nurses
who've worked for years in other
clinical areas who said they want-
ed to transition to the OR because they were unable to land a job in
Staffing
S
2 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7
• SOLID BACKGROUND Nurses who have worked in other
clinical areas have mastered patient care skills, but might
need to adjust to the unique demands of surgery.
