There are many more specialties in nursing today for one to consider. At Copley, nursing specialties include emergency, birthing, in-patient, surgical, cardiac, oncology, orthopedic, nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, nurse anesthetist and more.
For many entering the nursing field it’s about making a difference through compassion and care. “Some know immediately what field of nursing they want but many don’t,” says surgical services Kelly Langston, RN. “Unless you know specifically what kind of nursing you want to focus on when going to school, you may not develop those specific skills without additional education and training.” One prime example is perioperative nursing which is not generally covered in nursing education.
Rolling out the new era of perioperative nursing care
How do we attract new nursing graduates or nurses looking to transition into surgical care? Langston explains we do this by having the tools and resources available in-house allowing for growth in this specialized care.
“We have a team of dedicated nurses who can provide real-time hands-on training but we needed the means for nurses to receive in-depth education and foundational knowledge of perioperative nursing,” said Langston. The AORN Guidelines for Perioperative Practice are the gold-standard and provides new surgical nurses with consistent, current information more specific to surgical services. “The education is the foundation to this specialized nursing group with up-to-date evidenced-based practice. The bonus is the nurse participants can observe and work alongside our surgical team – gaining hands on experience and putting their recent education into real-life scenarios. This program not only adds to recruitment values but also has proven to improve retention rates.”
Being able to complete the online education and working in the surgical center allows the nurses to build their confidence and knowledge to function independently in an entry-level perioperative nursing position.