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Issues facing nursing practice today is a projected nursing shortage. As the current nursing workforce begins to retire, the need to fulfill nursing positions will be needed to meet demands of the growing number of patients that will require healthcare. As these nurse begin to retire within the next 10 to 15 years there will be a need for nurses. Studies have indicated that nursing shortages is evident in many areas of nursing practice including nursing faculty in schools of nursing internationally. Presently in the operating room, 51% of the nurses are over 50 years old and only 23% are under 40 year old. Therefore, issues in educating younger nurses and mentoring new nurses as they transition to nursing positions as graduates will be a challenge for the future.
Methods:
The operating room (OR) is a unique setting and specialty area of nursing practice that requires optimal orientation and education to render safe and efficient patient care. Unfortunately, due to the projected nursing shortage in the next 10 to 15 years there will need for perioperative nurses as the present nursing workforce retires. Currently, most nursing programs no longer offer perioperative courses in their curriculum and faculty who can teach perioperative nursing has diminished. Subsequently, this trend has led to the need for hospitals to educate and orient new nurses to their operating rooms. As hospitals educate their own OR nurses, retention following orientation becomes a priority.
A focused ethnography was conducted to explore nurses’ experiences as they transition to a new area of nursing practice, the operating room. This research explored the RNs transition to the Operating Room, a new specialty area for the nurses. Experiences that facilitated the RNs transition and experiences that hindered their transition were explored.
Results:
The need to educate nurses in the operating room, as well as other specialty areas, is essential to assure safety and positive outcomes. Structured perioperative courses implemented by hospitals or with partnerships with nursing programs can enhance the education, transition, and retention of nurses who are new to the OR. The importance of a nurse educator having an advanced degree with experience in the OR specialty was essential in coordinating and mentoring nurses transitioning to this new practice area. RNs who are prepared to precept were vital in the education and retention of these RNs. The need for consistent preceptors was recognized as an essential factor to the RNs’ successful transition. The findings from this study contribute to evidence-base practice for the design and implementation of perioperative programs for new nurses to promote a nursing workforce in the future.
Conclusion:
The importance of well structured EBP programs with an advanced nurses educator or a partnership with the hospital and a nursing program is conducive to a positive transition and orientation of the next generation of nurses in addressing the projected nursing shortage.