The Effect of a Perioperative Nursing Elective on Nursing Career Paths

A growing demand for perioperative nurses, insufficient interest in the perioperative nursing specialty, and nurse retirements have resulted in a perioperative nursing workforce shortage. Undergraduate nursing students’ limited exposure to perioperative content, along with facility hiring practices that exclude recently graduated nurses, further contribute to this shortage. To address these concerns, a large health care system in the midwestern United States partnered with a college of nursing to institute a perioperative preceptorship for baccalaureate nursing students during their final semester. After completing the preceptorship, students reported increased understanding of perioperative nursing roles and responsibilities, time management, and patient safety skills; ability to work effectively as a part of an interdisciplinary team; and independence in the perioperative setting. Future study is needed to examine rates of matriculation among program graduates into perioperative nursing positions and the program’s effect on the length of orientation for recently graduated nurses and nurse retention.

Section: Perioperative Nurse Recruitmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing the Perioperative Nursing Shortage Via a Perioperative Nursing Preceptorship for Baccalaureate Nursing Students

Manz¹,

Williams

Jessen

et al. 2020

Section: Nursing Student Experiences In the Ormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Witnessing patients’ intraoperative care provides students with valuable insights into the physiological and psychological stressors endured by patients during this phase of care. It also allows the nursing students to look beyond the highly technical environment of the OR and focus on the patient …”

Section: Nursing Student Experiences In the Ormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When nursing students observe perioperative nurses in clinical practice, they are better positioned to understand the intraoperative phase of care as a critical part of the patient experience. [7][8][9][10] Students witness real-time professional nurses as patient advocates who implement principles behind the art and science of nursing. Exposing nursing students to the patient-centric, dynamic, multidisciplinary, and team-oriented environment of the OR provides them with valuable learning experiences 8,9,11 and has implications for recruitment into the perioperative nursing workforce.…”

Section: Nursing Student Experiences In the Ormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It also allows the nursing students to look beyond the highly technical environment of the OR and focus on the patient. 7,13…”

Section: Nursing Student Experiences In the Ormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expanding an Academic‐Service Partnership to Develop a Summer Perioperative Nursing Practicum for Baccalaureate Students

Fujihara¹,

Fitzgerald²

2020

Addressing the increasing shortage of perioperative nurses requires innovative educational strategies. A private university and a teaching hospital with an academic‐service partnership collaborated to offer an educational perioperative nursing experience to baccalaureate nursing students to increase student interest in the perioperative nursing specialty. The university offered an elective summer practicum to baccalaureate nursing students between their junior and senior years. After completing the practicum, students had the opportunity to complete their senior‐year clinical rotations in the OR. Continuous evaluation contributed to refining the design and implementation of the perioperative nursing practicum. The challenges of the program included cost, demands on staff members’ time, and timing of the practicum relative to student and hospital needs. The practicum has been offered for three summers, and a total of six students have enrolled and participated in this program.

An Examination of the Career Choices of Nursing Graduates After Completing a Perioperative Elective

Cox¹,

Rumble²,

McNelis³

et al. 2023

In light of the perioperative nursing shortage, academic leaders at a mid-Atlantic school of nursing and leaders of three health care systems implemented an academic-practice partnership with the goal of increasing interest in this specialty. Nursing researchers used a descriptive study design to collect data from nursing alumni who participated in the perioperative elective between 2017 and 2021. They found that 25 (38%) of 65 graduates who participated in the elective entered perioperative nursing and 38 (68%) of 56 graduates who answered a question on considering future employment as a perioperative nurse indicated they would do so regardless of their current employment status. Graduates who participated in the elective and experienced a perioperative capstone placement had low anticipated turnover scores and intended to remain in a perioperative position. Academic and health care leaders should consider academic-practice partnerships as a strategy to recruit and retain perioperative nurses.