Engaging undergraduate nursing students in perioperative research.

Actively engaging in perioperative research lays a framework for stimulating interest in future research possibilities and provides students and graduate nurses with challenges to keep them interested as their careers progress. In this article, former honors students and a faculty researcher share their perceptions of participating in perioperative research. The primary investigator must emphasize learning throughout the process, be available to the students, provide structured guidance, and clarify the goals and expectations of the research experience. The students gain a greater understanding of the research process, discover the dedication and ethical values that are required of the researcher, learn how theory becomes the underlying framework for the research, and discover how descriptive statistics can be used to help explain the study results. Involvement in applied research may encourage these students to continue to contribute to evidence-based practice when they are employed as nurses and thus improve patient care.

A voluntary summer program to expose nursing students to the perioperative specialty.

Perioperative courses often are not available in undergraduate nursing programs, even though students are interested in the specialty. A voluntary summer program can provide opportunities that other clinical experiences cannot and can be a rewarding experience for faculty members and students. One such program has been established at a college in the southeastern United States.

Successful nursing student practicum in an ambulatory surgery center.

ALTHOUGH MOST ACADEMIC programs use hospital-based sites for perioperative clinical experiences, the exponential growth in the number of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and the increased variety of procedures performed in these settings make ASCs excellent venues for student learning experiences. NURSING STUDENTS in one program in Florida have the opportunity to take a perioperative practicum designed to allow them to learn about all aspects of patient care and administrative functions in ASCs. THE ASC PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE is popular with students and staff members alike, and ASC administrators are seeking ways to increase the number of students in the program in an effort to attract new graduates to ASCs.

A knowledge comparison of nursing students in perioperative versus other rotations.

As more patients undergo surgical interventions in ambulatory facilities and patients in acute care settings have shorter lengths of stay, nursing students may have limited interaction with the surgical patient population. This study used a repeated measure, experimental design to compare knowledge of surgical patient care among undergraduate nursing students who experienced a perioperative clinical rotation (ie, experimental groups) with knowledge among students who experienced rotations in other clinical settings (ie, control groups). Results demonstrated a significant change in mean knowledge scores over time and a significant difference in mean scores between the experimental and control groups. Students in the perioperative group scored higher in all four testing periods.

Perioperative clinical learning experiences.

Academic accreditation is valued by professional perioperative nurses, and it can be supported with nursing student interactions in the perioperative environment. Coherent, logically ordered educational objectives and participation in perioperative interventions facilitate student learning and can be used to meet academic accreditation standards. This article shows how nursing student learning in the perioperative setting can meet course objectives, satisfy academic accreditation criteria, and ultimately, improve patient care.

Reaching out to future generations--introduction at the high school level.

THE NEXT GENERATION of potential health care workers needs to be educated about the joys of perioperative nursing. BY EDUCATING HIGH SCHOOL students, AORN members can ensure that they spread the message operative nursing at a grassroots level. AORN'S PERIOPERATIVE NURSING: Introduction at the High School Level Task Force has created resources members can use to educate high school students, faculty members, and career counselors about what perioperative nurses do.