Registered Nurse (RN) - PeriOp 101 - OR General Surgery

Operating Room Transition To Practice Program

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St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport has more than 3,200 employees. It includes a 473-bed community teaching hospital, a 76-bed inpatient psychiatric facility in Westport, a large multispecialty provider group, and special needs services for adults and children. St. Vincent's is the first hospital in Fairfield County to be integrated into the Hartford HealthCare network, and is the system's second-largest hospital. In our state-of-the-art Operating Rooms we offer a comprehensive spectrum of advanced surgical specialties to include cardiac, general, GYN, neuro, surgical oncology, orthopedic and spine, while providing care in a compassionate medical setting. Founded in 1903, St. Vincent's remains steadfast in its mission to provide compassionate, personalized care to the community.

St. Vincent's has implemented a comprehensive transition to practice program for novice operating room nurses. This program aligns with Hartford Healthcare's values of excellence, safety, caring and integrity by offering a blended and multimodal approach to ensuring novice OR nurses master the necessary competencies to provide high quality and safe patient care.

Candidates are hired into the OR Transition to Practice Program with a start date of next February 22nd, 2027. The OR Transition to Practice Program is open to new graduate registered nurses and experienced nurses (non-OR experience). This 12-month long program is divided into two main phases:

Introduction to Perioperative Nursing: During the first 3 months of the program, learners can expect to be immersed in a multimodal learning experience through evidence-based learning modules (AORN Periop 101), classroom/group learning, simulation and clinical experiences to master the foundational perioperative nurse competencies. Students will learn the scrub nurse role during this time. At completion of phase one of the OR RN Transition to Practice Program, the learner will complete their Periop 101 final exam.

Clinical Orientation: The remaining 9 months are spent immersed in the clinical environment mastering the unit-based nursing competencies. This focus of this portion of the program is on the circulating nurse role in each of the surgical specialties including general, colorectal, gynecology, plastics, bariatrics, urology, surgical oncology, vascular, thoracic, robotics, neuro, spine, orthopedics, and podiatry. Additional components of this portion of the program include professional practice, professional development and professional governance. To facilitate the ideal learning experience, the schedule during the orientation period will be Monday Friday 6:30am-3:00pm. During the final weeks of the orientation period, the orientee will have the opportunity to be exposed to evening, night, and weekend shifts.

Throughout the entirety of the program, learners can expect to be mentored by their unit-based preceptors, management team and members of the Nursing Professional Development team (Unit Nurse Educators). You will meet regularly to ensure you are supported and set up for success in your new role. New graduate nurses will also be enrolled in our Hartford Healthcare Graduate Nurse Residency program to facilitate their transition to professional nursing practice.

Operating Room (OR) nurses, also known as perioperative nurses, play a crucial role in providing care before, during, and after surgery. They work closely with the surgical team to deliver safe, high-quality care and are responsible for ensuring patient safety throughout the perioperative environment. OR nurses may take on various roles in the surgical team, depending on their responsibilities.

Scrub Nurse: Scrub nurses work directly within the sterile field and assist the surgical team by preparing instruments, equipment, and sterile supplies, passing instruments to the surgeon during the procedure, maintaining a sterile environment, and monitoring instruments and supplies used during surgery to ensure nothing is misplaced.

Circulating Nurse: Circulating nurses manage the overall environment of the operating room by ensuring all surgical tools, supplies, and equipment are available and working, monitoring the patient's safety and well-being throughout the surgery, maintaining documentation and records of the procedure, communicating between the surgical team and other departments (such as pathology or radiology) and anticipating the needs of the surgical team, and providing additional instruments, medications, or equipment as necessary.

OR General Surgery: The Operating Room (OR) General Surgery provides care to a diverse group of patients across multiple surgical specialties. These specialties include general, colorectal, gynecology, plastics, bariatrics, urology, surgical oncology, vascular, thoracic, robotics, neuro, spine, orthopedics, podiatry, and trauma. The Core OR team is also responsible for ensuring 24/7 operating room coverage, offering staff a range of alternative scheduling options. Additionally, there are numerous opportunities for team members to engage in innovation and continued learning with new equipment and procedures.