science

Perioperative nursing

Perioperative nursing is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Perioperative nursing rather than just read about it. In short: Perioperative nursing is a nursing specialty that works with patients who are having operative or other invasive procedures. Perioperative nurses work closely with surgeons, anaesthesiologists, nurse anaesthetists, surgical technologists, and nurse practitioners.

Key takeaways

Perioperative nursing belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Perioperative nursing to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Perioperative nursing from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Perioperative nursing is a nursing specialty that works with patients who are having operative or other invasive procedures. Perioperative nurses work closely with surgeons, anaesthesiologists, nurse anaesthetists, surgical technologists, and nurse practitioners. They perform preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative care primarily in the operating theatre. Also known as operating room nurses or OR nurses, perioperative nurses are registered nurses (RNs) who work in hospital surgical departments, day-surgery units (also called ambulatory surgery units), clinics, and physicians' offices. They help plan, implement, and evaluate treatment of the surgical patient and may work closely with the patient, family members, and other health care professionals.

Becoming a perioperative nurse To work in the OR in a preoperative, intraoperative or postoperative nursing role in the United States, you must have a degree in nursing and pass the NCLEX-RN licensing exam. Your nursing education should include supervised clinical experience in surgical nursing, critical care or emergency room care to show you know what it takes to work in a fast-paced, high-stakes care environment. Many hospitals offer perioperative internship programs to gain this practice experience. These can include AORN's Periop 101 curriculum, a widely recognized program that offers RNs exposure to the latest surgical nursing standards of care and is used in over 2,500 hospitals across the United States.

Perioperative nursing salary Surgical nursing salaries start just under $70,000 for staff nurses in the United States and can increase to well over $100,000 for OR nurses working in advanced clinical and administrative positions. In the United Kingdom perioperative nurses ranges from £24,907 to £37,890 depending on Agenda for Change pay band and experience.

Perioperative nursing roles Perioperative nurses may perform several roles depending on the country they practice in, including circulating, instrument (or scrub) nurse, preoperative (or patient reception) nurse, Post Anaesthetic Care Unit or recovery nurse, registered nurse first assistant (RNFA), and patient educator.

Circulating nurse The circulating nurse is a perioperative nurse who assists in managing the nursing care of a patient during surgery. The circulating nurse observes for unintended breaches in surgical asepsis and coordinates the additional needs of the surgical team, such as procuring extra instruments, monitor operating room conditions, and liaising the communication with other medical, nursing and ward staff. The circulating nurse is not scrubbed in the case but rather manages the care and environment during surgery.

Instrument nurse

An instrument or scrub nurse is a perioperative nurse who works directly with the surgeon within the sterile field. The main responsibilities of the scrub nurse is to manage the sterile instruments and equipment, perform counts to ensure that items are not inadvertently left inside the surgical wound, anticipate the surgeon's needs and pass required instruments and equipment to the surgeon. Other duties can also include surgical site preparation, sterile draping. Some scrub nurses also suction, irrigate and retract for minor procedures. The title "scrub nurse" comes from the requirement to scrub their hands and arms with special disinfecting solutions.

RN First Assistant An RNFA is the surgeon's assistant and is extremely qualified in providing extended perioperative nursing care. The role also includes preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative care of the patient.

Perianaesthesia nursing The perianaesthesia nurse (recovery nurse) provides intensive nursing care to patients after they wake from anaesthesia. This nurse cares for and monitors patients to make sure they are not nauseated or disoriented.

See also Association of periOperative Registered Nurses Perianesthesia nursing

References

External links Australian College of periOperative Registered Nurses

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Perioperative nursing

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Perioperative nursing claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Perioperative nursing before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Perioperative nursing ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Perioperative nursing

In research: Perioperative nursing appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Perioperative nursing in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Perioperative nursing is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Perioperative nursing, Surgery, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Perioperative nursing outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Perioperative nursing in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Perioperative nursing means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Perioperative nursing out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Perioperative nursing in simple terms?

Why does Perioperative nursing matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Perioperative nursing?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Perioperative nursing.