Establishing a collaborative relationship with a college of nursing

AORN Journal, Nov, 2002 by Laurie Mitchell, Darlena Stevens, Jennifer Goodman, Mary Brown

The cost for OR staff member time spent in teaching and facilitating the students' learning experience also was considered minimal, as teaching new health care providers is an everyday occurrence at St Luke's. Nonteaching hospitals may need to consider and measure the added costs of providing a learning experience.

On the other hand, managers should consider the costs of not having enough qualified staff members in the OR. Operating rooms without adequate staff members generally will use other options to provide care for patients. Options such as overtime, use of travel or registry nurses, or limiting the number of surgical procedures done have a direct effect on a hospital's costs and revenues.

There also is a human cost when perioperative managers, educators, and other skilled staff members are pulled from other responsibilities to provide direct care in the scrub or circulator role or when staff members' vacations and days off are cancelled or denied. Table 1 shows an estimate of the monthly costs associated with having several vacancies, using contract staff members, and having to turn away surgical patients because at least one OR cannot be staffed on a daily basis. Although providing a perioperative elective in collaboration with a school of nursing will not immediately provide ORs with qualified staff members, it will increase the number of graduating nurses who will consider perioperative nursing as a career choice.

Other benefits in providing such a program, which may not have measurable costs associated with them but which should be considered, include the following points.

* Students obtain excellent experience in the OR, which can help them decide if a perioperative career is an option for them. Some students will fall in love with perioperative nursing, while others will decide it is not the right choice for them. Students in the St Luke's/Prairie View program come to a decision based on the knowledge and experience they have gained in the OR and not on hearsay and unsubstantiated fears. This can be a tremendous benefit to them in making long-term career decisions.

* Students who do not select perioperative nursing when they graduate may reconsider it at a later date. In either case, they are better prepared to care for surgical patients preoperatively or postoperatively in the nursing specialty they choose. Aseptic technique is learned and well-practiced during this elective course. Patients benefit from having a nurse who has a greater understanding of anatomy, physiology, and the surgical experience patients will encounter.

* Operating room staff members take great pride in teaching students, and this pride increases when "their" students select perioperative nursing as a career. Pride in their work and the feeling of having made a contribution are known retention factors for experienced staff members.

* The reputation of an individual surgical services department and the learning environment provided will spread throughout the nursing school, and more students may select this elective as each year passes. Providing a perioperative elective also may improve the marketability of the nursing school involved.