Cover Story

It’s no secret that hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and other health care facilities have been experiencing nurse staffing challenges lately because of the nationwide nursing shortage and ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many organizations are turning to travel nurses as one strategy to meet these challenges.

Engagement is just as important in the perioperative field as it is in any other industry. Many health care organizations today are making nurse engagement a priority to combat nurse fatigue and burnout, increase retention rates, boost patient satisfaction scores and improve patient outcomes and safety.

Despite its challenges, many OR nurses believe that theirs is the greatest career in the world. So, we asked some perioperative nurses to share with us why they love their jobs. Following are their responses. 

AORN provides ongoing education about surgical smoke, including the AORN Go Clear program. “This is a comprehensive approach to protecting patient and worker safety by promoting a smoke-free environment wherever surgical smoke is generated,” says Pennock. 

Many hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) today look more like construction zones than health care facilities as they build new perioperative suites and renovate existing suites to keep up with patient demand and new technology requirements. “Renovating and building perioperative suites has become one of the fastest growing skill sets for health care leaders,” says Aimee Watson, MS, CMRP, a senior manager in healthcare at St. Onge, an independent engineering firm that provides design, logistics and supply chain consulting to hospitals and ASCs. “But we never received a class on this in school.”