Responding to a changing healthcare environment, GateWay Community College has launched a Surgical Technology for the Operating Room Nurse (STORN) program to provide nurses with the training they need to be in the operating room.
“The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) has stated the need for hospitals to staff nurses that can perform multiple roles in the operating room,” explains Susan Wallen, the program director of STORN. “Initially, nurses would help the anesthesiologist and prepare medication but now we are seeing them fully engaged in the surgical procedure, handing instruments to the surgeon, keeping a sterile environment and more.”
The program usually accepts 15 students, and it works on a first-come, first-served method of enrollment. However, this program is not for everyone. This program is reserved only for those who are Registered Nurses or those who have graduated from the Nursing program. Even within that parameter, though, the program may not be a good fit for every RN.
“You almost have to be an adrenaline junkie to like it,” says Wallen. “I think the reason nurses do it is because they have that drive to save a life and they know that working beside a surgeon, you’re working with someone that does just that.”
As part of the program, students will learn how to properly hand instruments to the surgeon as well as anticipate a surgeon’s needs. In addition, students learn how to scrub, gown, and glove in order to maintain a sterile field, while working with the surgeon as well as the patient. There are over 500 instruments the students will need to familiarize themselves with in order to be ready for the operating room.
Between August and November, the students learn nine different surgical procedures from beginning to end. “It is a surgical technology program on steroids,” Wallen admits.
STORN graduates mention that the benefits of the program are in the hands-on approach and in the training students receive for the scrub and circulating roles in the operating room.
“Understanding your role in the [Operating Room] can make a nurse better anticipate what needs are to be met,” says STORN graduate Sean Nedelko. “The program is rather intense and in many ways, you only would get back what you put into it.”
The STORN program at GateWay Community College is the only program west of the Mississippi River that teaches nurses to work with the surgeon as well as advocate for the patient during a surgical procedure. The program blends the roles of a perioperative registered nurse circulator as well as a scrub nurse.
As difficult as the program may be, there is a bright future for those who complete it. “There is a big need for nurses in the operating room,” says Wallen. “GateWay nurses are highly recognized in the field and we produce some of the best surgical tech, perioperative nurses and the best hospital central service employees because they have the depth of theory and practical experience.”
Nedelko agrees that the program opened opportunities for him while he was working at St. Joseph’s Hospital doing his school labs. “STORN pretty much changed my life,” he says.
Learn more about GateWay's surgical technology for the operating room nurse program here.