Perioperative nursing

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Perioperative nursing is a nursing specialty that works with patients who are having operative or other invasive procedures. Perioperative nurses work closely with surgeons, anaesthesiologists, nurse anaesthetists, surgical technologists, and nurse practitioners. They perform preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative care primarily in the operating theatre. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Also known as operating room nurses or OR nurses, perioperative nurses are registered nurses (RNs) who work in hospital surgical departments, day-surgery units (also called ambulatory surgery units), clinics, and physicians' offices. They help plan, implement, and evaluate treatment of the surgical patient and may work closely with the patient, family members, and other health care professionals. [4]

Becoming a perioperative nurse

To work in the OR in a preoperative, intraoperative or postoperative nursing role in the United States, you must have a degree in nursing and pass the NCLEX-RN licensing exam. Your nursing education should include supervised clinical experience in surgical nursing, critical care or emergency room care to show you know what it takes to work in a fast-paced, high-stakes care environment. [5]

Many hospitals offer perioperative internship programs to gain this practice experience. These can include AORN's Periop 101 curriculum, [6] a widely recognized program that offers RNs exposure to the latest surgical nursing standards of care and is used in over 2,500 hospitals across the United States.

Perioperative nursing salary

Surgical nursing salaries start just under $70,000 for staff nurses in the United States and can increase to well over $100,000 for OR nurses working in advanced clinical and administrative positions. [7] [5] [8]

In the United Kingdom perioperative nurses ranges from £24,907 to £37,890 depending on Agenda for Change pay band and experience.

Perioperative nursing roles

Perioperative nurses may perform several roles depending on the country they practice in, including circulating, instrument (or scrub) nurse, preoperative (or patient reception) nurse, Post Anaesthetic Care Unit or recovery nurse, registered nurse first assistant (RNFA), and patient educator. [1] [9]

Circulating nurse

The circulating nurse is a perioperative nurse who assists in managing the nursing care of a patient during surgery. The circulating nurse observes for unintended breaches in surgical asepsis and coordinates the additional needs of the surgical team, such as procuring extra instruments, monitor operating room conditions, and liaising the communication with other medical, nursing and ward staff. The circulating nurse is not scrubbed in the case but rather manages the care and environment during surgery. [10]

Instrument nurse

An instrument or scrub nurse is a perioperative nurse who works directly with the surgeon within the sterile field. The main responsibilities of the scrub nurse is to manage the sterile instruments and equipment, perform counts to ensure that items are not inadvertently left inside the surgical wound, anticipate the surgeon's needs and pass required instruments and equipment to the surgeon. Other duties can also include surgical site preparation, sterile draping. Some scrub nurses also suction, irrigate and retract for minor procedures. The title "scrub nurse" comes from the requirement to scrub their hands and arms with special disinfecting solutions. [1] [11]

RN First Assistant

An RNFA is the surgeon's assistant and is extremely qualified in providing extended perioperative nursing care. The role also includes preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative care of the patient. [1] [11]

Perianaesthesia nursing

The perianaesthesia nurse (recovery nurse) provides intensive nursing care to patients after they wake from anaesthesia. This nurse cares for and monitors patients to make sure they are not nauseated or disoriented.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surgery</span> Medical procedures that involve incisive or invasive instruments into body cavities

Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions, to alter bodily functions, to reconstruct or improve aesthetics and appearance, or to remove unwanted tissues or foreign bodies. The subject receiving the surgery is typically a person, but can also be a non-human animal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operating theater</span> A room in a hospital in which surgeries are performed

An operating theater is a facility within a hospital where surgical operations are carried out in an aseptic environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">General anaesthesia</span> Medically induced loss of consciousness

General anaesthesia (UK) or general anesthesia (US) is a method of medically inducing loss of consciousness that renders a patient unarousable even with painful stimuli. This effect is achieved by administering either intravenous or inhalational general anaesthetic medications, which often act in combination with an analgesic and neuromuscular blocking agent. Spontaneous ventilation is often inadequate during the procedure and intervention is often necessary to protect the airway. General anaesthesia is generally performed in an operating theater to allow surgical procedures that would otherwise be intolerably painful for a patient, or in an intensive care unit or emergency department to facilitate endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation in critically ill patients. Depending on the procedure, general anaesthesia may be optional or required. Regardless of whether a patient may prefer to be unconscious or not, certain pain stimuli could result in involuntary responses from the patient that may make an operation extremely difficult. Thus, for many procedures, general anaesthesia is required from a practical perspective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nurse anesthetist</span> Nurse trained to provide anesthesia care

A nurse anesthetist is an advanced practice nurse who administers anesthesia for surgery or other medical procedures. Nurse anesthetists (NA's) administer or participate in administration of anesthesia services in 107 countries, working with or without anesthesiologists. Because of different historical backgrounds, anesthetist responsibilities and roles vary widely between countries. Depending on the locality, their role may be limited to intraoperative care during anesthesia itself or may also extend before and after. The International Federation of Nurse Anesthetists was established in 1989 as a forum for developing standards of education, practice, and a code of ethics.

Perioperative mortality has been defined as any death, regardless of cause, occurring within 30 days after surgery in or out of the hospital. Globally, 4.2 million people are estimated to die within 30 days of surgery each year. An important consideration in the decision to perform any surgical procedure is to weigh the benefits against the risks. Anesthesiologists and surgeons employ various methods in assessing whether a patient is in optimal condition from a medical standpoint prior to undertaking surgery, and various statistical tools are available. ASA score is the most well known of these.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surgical technologist</span> Profession

A surgical technologist, also called a scrub, scrub tech, surgical technician, or operating department practitioner or operating room technician, is an allied health professional working as a part of the team delivering surgical care. Surgical technologists are members of the surgical team. The members of the team include the surgeon, surgeon's assistant, circulator nurse and anesthesia provider. They possess knowledge and skills in sterile and aseptic techniques. There are few mandatory professional requirements for surgical technologists, and the scope of practice varies widely across countries and jurisdictions. Surgical technologists attend junior colleges and technical schools, and many are trained in military schools. In the military they perform the duties of both the circulator and the scrub. The goal is for surgical technologists to be able to anticipate the next move the surgeon is going to make in order to make the procedure as smooth and efficient as possible. They do this by having knowledge of hundreds of surgical procedures and the steps the surgeon needs to take in order to complete the procedure, including the very wide range of surgical instruments they may need. Specialties can include, but are not limited to, the following: genitourinary, obstetrics and gynaecology, urology, ENT, plastics, general, orthopedics, neurology, and cardiovascular. They only work in surgical or perioperative areas and are highly specialized. Surgical technologist is the proper term for a two-year program which earns a degree in applied sciences. The profession is up and coming and highly in demand.

Image-guided surgery (IGS) is any surgical procedure where the surgeon uses tracked surgical instruments in conjunction with preoperative or intraoperative images in order to directly or indirectly guide the procedure. Image guided surgery systems use cameras, ultrasonic, electromagnetic or a combination of fields to capture and relay the patient's anatomy and the surgeon's precise movements in relation to the patient, to computer monitors in the operating room or to augmented reality headsets. This is generally performed in real-time though there may be delays of seconds or minutes depending on the modality and application.

A post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) and sometimes referred to as post-anesthesia recovery or PAR, or simply recovery, is a part of hospitals, ambulatory care centers, and other medical facilities. Patients who received general anesthesia, regional anesthesia, or local anesthesia are transferred from the operating room suites to the recovery area. The patients are monitored typically by anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, and other medical staff. Providers follow a standardized handoff to the medical PACU staff that includes, which medications were given in the operating room suites, how hemodynamics were during the procedures, and what is expected for their recovery. After initial assessment and stabilization, patients are monitored for any potential complications, until the patient is transferred back to their hospital rooms.

The perioperative period is the period of a patient's surgical procedure. It commonly includes ward admission, anesthesia, surgery, and recovery. Perioperative may refer to the three phases of surgery: preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative, though it is a term most often used for the first and third of these only - a term which is often specifically utilized to imply 'around' the time of the surgery. The primary concern of perioperative care is to provide better conditions for patients before an operation and after an operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gossypiboma</span> Foreign materials left inside the body following surgery

Gossypiboma, textiloma or more broadly Retained Foreign Object (RFO) is the technical term for surgical complications resulting from foreign materials, such as a surgical sponge, accidentally left inside a patient's body.

In the United Kingdom, operating department practitioners (ODPs) are allied healthcare professionals who are involved in the planning and delivery of perioperative care. As the name suggests, they are primarily employed in surgical operating departments, but they may also work directly within a variety of acute clinical settings, including pre-hospital emergency care, emergency departments, intensive care units (ICUs), endoscopy suites, interventional radiology, cardiac catheter suites, obstetric theatres and reproductive medicine.

A surgical nurse, also referred to as a theatre nurse or scrub nurse, specializes in perioperative care, providing care to patients before, during and after surgery. To become a theatre nurse, Registered Nurses or Enrolled Nurses must complete extra training. Theatre nurses can focus on different speciality areas, depending on which they are interested in.

The Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) partnership is an American multi-year national campaign to substantially reduce surgical mortality and morbidity through collaborative efforts between healthcare organizations. The campaign began in August 2005 with the original goal of reducing the national incidence of surgical complications by 25% by the year 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operating room management</span>

Operating room management is the science of how to run an operating room suite. Operational operating room management focuses on maximizing operational efficiency at the facility, i.e. to maximize the number of surgical cases that can be done on a given day while minimizing the required resources and related costs. For example, what is the number of required anaesthetists or the scrub nurses that are needed next week to accommodate the expected workload or how can we minimize the cost of drugs used in the Operating Room? Strategic operating room management deals with long-term decision-making. For example, is it profitable to add two additional rooms to the existing facility? Typically, operating room management in profit-oriented health-care systems emphasizes strategic thinking whereas in countries with publicly funded health care, the focus is on operational decisions.

Cardiothoracic anesthesiology is a subspeciality of the medical practice of anesthesiology, devoted to the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative care of adult and pediatric patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery and related invasive procedures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scrubs (clothing)</span> Lightweight, washable clothing worn by hospital staff or other medical personnel

Scrubs, or sometimes Surgical Scrubs, or Nursing Scrubs, are the sanitary clothing worn by physicians, nurses, dentists and other workers involved in patient care. Originally designed for use by surgeons and other operating room personnel, who would put them on when sterilizing themselves, or "scrubbing in", before surgery, they are now worn by many hospital personnel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nursing in Canada</span> Overview of nursing in Canada

Nurses in Canada practise in a wide variety of settings, with various levels of training and experience. They provide evidence-based care and educate their patients about health and disease.

The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) represents more than 41,000 registered nurses in the United States and abroad who facilitate the management, teaching, and practice of perioperative nursing, or who are enrolled in nursing education or engaged in perioperative research. Its members also include perioperative nurses who work in related business and industry sectors.

Perianesthesia nursing is a nursing specialty practice area concerned with providing nursing care to patients undergoing or recovering from anesthesia. Perianesthesia nursing encompasses several subspecialty practice areas and represents a diverse number of practice environments and skill sets.

Integrated Medical Systems International, Inc., (IMS) is a surgical instrument management and clinical consulting company specializing in repair management, sterile process management, tracking, and other services related to surgical and endoscopic devices and instruments. Today the company operates repair facilities in Alabama, Florida, and Maryland. IMS has more than 1,200 employees nationwide.

References

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  2. "Home". Healthtimes.com.au.
  3. "Association of periOperative Registered Nurses". www.aorn.org. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  4. "AORN Career Center - Career Advice Consider a Career in the OR". Association of periOperative Registered Nurses. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  5. 1 2 "The Periop Life - Land Your First OR Nursing Job in 5 Easy Steps - AORN Blog". Association of periOperative Registered Nurses. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  6. Periop 101 curriculum, AORN
  7. Bacon, Donald R.; Stewart, Kim A. (2017). "Results of the 2017 AORN Salary and Compensation Survey". AORN Journal. 106 (6): 476–493. doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2017.09.010 . ISSN   1878-0369. PMID   29173373.
  8. "Average Nursing Salaries". Saturday, May 30, 2020
  9. "Homepage". Association of periOperative Registered Nurses. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  10. "Australian College of Operating Room Nurses :: Home". Australian College of Operating Room Nurses. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  11. 1 2 "AORN Career Center - Career Advice Advance your perioperative career". www.aorn.org. Retrieved 2019-05-29.