Perioperative Care Coordinator Nurse Competency Statements

AORN Journal, Oct, 1999 by Ramona Conner

The Nursing Practice Committee has completed development of the perioperative care coordinator nurse competency statements. The perioperative care coordinator is defined in the "Working document on perioperative nursing roles":

   A perioperative nurse who is responsible and accountable for optimizing
   available resources while independently and collaboratively assessing,
   planning, implementing, and evaluating the care of the surgical patient is
   practicing in a perioperative care coordinator role. In this expanded role,
   the perioperative nurse is responsible for providing leadership, clinical
   expertise, and functional direction to other members of the health care
   team to achieve optimal patient outcomes. This role may include, but is not
   limited to, surgical case manager; intraoperative patient care coordinator,
   patient/family educator, cost-reduction specialist, industry
   educator/consultant, registered nurse first assistant, and
   administrator.(1)

The perioperative care coordinator should have mastered the skills outlined in the "Competency Statements in Perioperative Nursing." AORN strongly believes that the best foundation for the perioperative care coordinator role is perioperative nursing.

The Nursing Practice Committee developed a preliminary list of broad competencies that they believe fall within the category of perioperative care coordinator. This list was distributed to the specialty assemblies' governing councils in July 1998 for input, with the intent that the final competencies would be broad in nature and represent commonalities in required knowledge and skills. A survey using the preliminary list of competencies and a template for use in defining the knowledge and skills necessary for the unique roles within the specific specialty assembly were sent to the governing councils of the following specialty assemblies: Advanced Technology: Lasers and Minimally Invasive Surgery; Ambulatory Surgery; Business, Industry & Consulting; Management; Nurse Educator/Clinical Nurse Specialist; Nurses in Perioperative Informatics; and RN First Assistant.

The survey responses were reviewed and suggestions were incorporated into the perioperative care coordinator competency statements. The Nursing Practice Committee completed the final revision of the statements in November 1998, and the document was referred to the AORN nurse researchers (ie, Suzanne Beyea, RN, PhD, CS; Leslie Nicoll, RN, MS, MBA, PhD) for review and comment. The researchers approved the document in December 1998. The AORN Board of Directors reviewed and approved the perioperative care coordinator nurse competency statements at the February 1999 Board meeting.

The perioperative care coordinator competency statements are intended to serve as an "umbrella" of competencies that can be adapted for specific roles. The following competency statements are a sampling of activities a perioperative care coordinator might perform. The list is not exhaustive, nor is the perioperative care coordinator required to perform all activities listed to demonstrate a particular competency. The Nursing Practice Committee believes the following competencies will need to be revisited as the role of the perioperative care coordinator evolves.

Members of the Nursing Practice Committee who worked on development of the competencies in 1998 were Antonia B. Hughes, RN, BSN, CNOR, chair; Diane L. Fecteau, RN, MSA; Pat Hickey, RN, BSN, CNOR; Lillian H. Nicolette, RN, MSN, CNOR; Brenda J. McKonly, RN, CNOR; and Ramona L. Conner, RN, MSN, staff consultant.