Why work in perioperative nursing? Baby boomers and generation Xers tell all

AORN Journal,  Oct, 2007  by Julia A. Thompson

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   I have worked other places. This is a very
   good place to work. I think it all boils down
   that you can work in surgery anywhere, but
   anywhere isn't as nice as where I am now
   because like if I have a problem, I go to
   someone and talk to them about it and they
   will solve it for me.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE. A second major theme I identified regarding the factors that influence nurses to remain in OR nursing is having the opportunity to make a difference. This theme included nurses feeling like they have achieved something and that they are able to care for one patient at a time.

Nurses expressed the feeling that through their work, they have achieved something and they know that they are making a difference to patient outcomes. This theme included being able to spend time with the patient, to see a patient's improvement, and to make sure that all the patient's and surgical team's needs were met.

All nurses mentioned "making a difference" in the lives of their patients as they discussed their careers in OR nursing. One emerging workforce participant said,

   There is a sense that you get some reward, that
   you have accomplished something at the end of
   the day, at the end of your case. I think it is
   really the patients that make me stay in the
   operating room.

An emerging workforce respondent who had experience in a variety of nursing specialties described what she liked about scrubbing by saying,

   You feel like you're doing something important.
   You're helping the doctor do surgery.
   You feel like you are fixing somebody. Somebody
   is broke; you go in there and fix it. I
   don't know; it is just satisfying.

Another young nurse stated, "It is gratifying to know you can make a difference. In some patients, you can see almost an immediate change post-surgery." In addition, a 27-year-old RN with three years of experience said, "In the OR, you start a case, you do good, you accomplish something, and it ends right there."

A major motivator for working in OR nursing was described as "one-on-one patient care" and being able to focus more on patient care. A veteran respondent with 26 years of OR experience stated,

   One big advantage of the OR is you have one
   patient at a time to take care of and, no matter
   how short they are, they are never going to
   give you more than one patient to take care of.

This theme was repeated by respondents all along the age range. An emerging workforce nurse reflected, "In the OR, I enjoy that it is just one patient at a time." When asked how she would recruit someone to OR nursing, the response from an emerging workforce nurse was, "I would tell them 'It's one patient at a time and you're with a team; the whole load is not on you.'" An entrenched workforce respondent said that it was an advantage to be in the OR "because it's always one-to-one RN," and nurses are not going to be assigned to care for more than one patient at a time if staffing is short; an OR nurse is not pulled to work in a different unit to cover a staffing shortage.