Perioperative Nurse Week: Celebrating Patient Advocates Who ‘Constantly Deal with the Unknown’

November 13, 2014
Vivian Gamblian sim lab

Vivian Gamblian, M.S.N., senior lecturer at Baylor University's Louise Herrington School of Nursing in Dallas, demonstrates assisting a patient during a class in the School's state-of-the-art simulation lab.

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Baylor School of Nursing preps students for fast-paced, challenging operating room positions

DALLAS, Texas (Nov. 13, 2014) – In the hospital operating room, everyone has a job to do. The person in the room whose sole purpose is the well-being of the patient – no matter the situation, no matter the circumstance – is the perioperative nurse.

“Your job is to advocate for the patients who can’t speak for themselves,” said Vivian Gamblian, M.S.N., senior lecturer at Baylor University’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing in Dallas, and a former perioperative nurse.

“Speed and accuracy are highly valuable and important. You’re constantly dealing with the unknown,” she said. “It’s not for everybody; that’s for sure.”

Perioperative nursing is a specialized field in health care. As a member of the surgical team, the perioperative registered nurse collaborates with other health care professionals including the surgeon, anesthetist, surgical assistant and other assistive personnel. Baylor has one of the few nursing schools that teaches an intensive elective course in the field, preparing students for growing demand.

This week, Nov. 9-15, is Perioperative Nurse Week, an annual celebration organized by the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), which represents the interests of more than 160,000 perioperative registered nurses in hospitals and outpatient surgery centers.

“Many schools had stopped teaching perioperative nursing because there just wasn’t a market for a number of years,” Gamblian said, explaining that there were few job openings because nurses ensconced in those positions were staying put. But that’s changing quickly.

“A lot of nurses who made careers of working in the operating room are nearing retirement age,” she said. “There’s going to be a significant need.”

Baylor’s perioperative course introduces students to a number of skills and experiences, including: sterile techniques for surgical procedures; interprofessional roles within the operating room; safety management in the surgical suite; pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative care of the patient undergoing a surgical procedure; and new technologies in surgery including robotics and minimally invasive procedures.

Placement rates for externships are high, Gamblian said. All students who took the course this past summer were hired by hospitals to gain more hands-on, operating room training.

The need is there for nursing as a whole, according the American Nurses Association. Nursing is the nation’s largest health care profession, with nearly 3 million employed professionals. However, the federal government projects more than 1 million new RNs will be needed by 2022 to fill new jobs and replace RNs who leave the profession, according to the ANA.

Texas is no exception.

The Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies shows that there are approximately 195,000 registered nurses in the state. Based on 2006 projections, by 2020, Texas will need nearly 100,000 more.

The Louise Herrington School of Nursing offers a bachelor of science in nursing degree (including a 12-month accelerated post-baccalaureate program) and master of science in nursing degrees in advanced neonatal nursing, nursing administration and management, and family nurse practitioner programs, which are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. The School also offers a nurse midwifery doctorate in nursing practice.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution, characterized as having “high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University provides a vibrant campus community for approximately 16,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. Baylor sponsors 19 varsity athletic teams and is a founding member of the Big 12 Conference.

ABOUT LOUISE HERRINGTON SCHOOL OF NURSING

The Baylor Louise Herrington School of Nursing was established in 1909 as a diploma program within Baylor Hospital in Dallas, which is now Baylor University Medical Center, and in 1950 became one of the six degree-granting schools of Baylor University. The first Bachelor of Science in nursing degrees were awarded in 1954, establishing the school as one of the oldest baccalaureate nursing programs in the United States. In 1999, the School was renamed the Louise Herrington School of Nursing after Louise Herrington Ornelas, a 1992 Baylor Alumna Honoris Causa, made a $13 million endowment gift to the school. The School of Nursing offers a bachelor of science in nursing degree and a master of science in nursing degrees in advanced neonatal nursing, nursing administration and management, and family nurse practitioner programs, which are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. The School also offers a nurse midwifery doctorate in nursing practice.