Effects of Guided Undergraduate Perioperative Education on Recruiting Novice RNs and Retaining Experienced RNs

Abstract

This qualitative research describes undergraduate nurses' perceptions of their perioperative placement experiences and how they may affect their future perioperative employment. It also describes experienced perioperative nurses' perceptions of the effect of student placement experiences on retention. The author asked undergraduate nurses about their experiences in the OR, if any, and whether they would consider perioperative nursing as a career; the author also asked experienced perioperative educators to comment on whether there are correlations between types of perioperative student experiences that affect stress levels for supervising staff members. The author used reporting of disconfirming data, and expert peers performed an external examination of data to guarantee the rigor of qualitative data analysis. The findings indicate that undergraduate nurses who are provided with guided practical experiences (as opposed to non-guided experiences or no OR experiences) are more likely to consider perioperative nursing as a career. In addition, the findings show that the arrival of students in the OR with no preparation for the experience is a major stressor for staff members.