Perioperative Nursing
If you or someone you know came through surgery in good shape, you can thank a perioperative nurse. Yes, perioperative. What’s that, you ask? It is often called operating room nursing.
Perioperative nurses are responsible for maintaining a safe environment for the surgical patient before, during, and immediately following surgery. Patients requiring surgery are often extremely anxious. It is the perioperative nurse’s role to make sure that the patient is reassured that the operating room team will provide the best care possible to the patient throughout the operative procedure. The perioperative nurse also ensures that all medical information, such as known allergies, consent forms, laboratory, and other diagnostic tests are documented, have been performed, are in order, and are available to the surgical team before the start of surgery. The perioperative nurse is one of the members of the team responsible for making sure the correct patient goes into the operating room for the correct surgery. You wouldn’t want a mix-up there!
The perioperative nurse also makes sure that the operating room runs smoothly throughout the entire surgical procedure, including making sure the patient is properly positioned, draped and prepped for surgery; that the necessary equipment is set-up and operational; that proper sterile technique is observed at all times by members of the surgical team during the procedure; and that all surgical instruments, sponges, and needles are accounted for during the procedure. An expert perioperative nurse manages the operating room environment throughout the duration of an entire surgical procedure, including troubleshooting problems with equipment, providing critical information about the patient to the operating room team, and making sure that all laboratory specimens are properly prepared and labeled for analysis.
The perioperative nurse may also assist the surgeon by scrubbing in on a surgical case or acting as the surgeon’s first assistant. Additional education, training and certification is required for a registered nurse who wants to be recognized as a registered nurse first assistant.
Opportunities for perioperative nurses exist at hospitals and outpatient surgical centers. Perioperative nurses may also be afforded the opportunity to work with select surgical populations depending on the volume of patients undergoing those procedures at their place of employment. For instance, some perioperative nurses choose to work on open heart surgical, orthopedic, or neurosurgical teams.