Students Scrub and Circulate

A perioperative nursing course was offered by York College Stabler Department of Nursing and York Hospital in May 2012 for the mini-mester term. This course was taught by Lisa Ruth-Sahd, DEd, RN, CEN, CCRN, and Gail Wilson, MS, RN, CNOR, York Hospital’s operating room staff educator and clinical nurse specialist. Ruth-Sahd taught the classroom content and Wilson facilitated the course in the perioperative setting.

Students gained the basic knowledge and skills necessary for a beginning perioperative practitioner. Topics of focus included sterile technique, safety, the surgical field, patient positioning, and care of the patient and significant others in the pre and postoperative area. Patient education, discharge planning, evidence-based practice and principles of general anesthesia were also emphasized.

York Hospital perfusionists and open heart team also welcomed students and explained the unique aspects of their careers. Students were privileged to take a tour of the Central Sterilizing Processing Unit.

The nine students participated in many surgeries by scrubbing and circulating.  They rotated in all surgical specialty areas including general and vascular; open heart; orthopedic; neurological; urological; ear, nose and throat; plastic surgery; and obstetric and gynecological. They met patients in the holding room, traveled into the operating room, and accompanied the patient to the Post Anesthesia Care Unit.

The class members completed papers addressing such topics as the nursing care of patients undergoing deep brain stimulation, ureteroscopy with laser and stent, DaVinci hysterectomy, open reduction and fixation of a zygomatic arch fracture, and gastric bypass surgery.

Students conducted professional presentations attended by operating room staff; their topics included care of the patient undergoing carotid endarterectomy, total neck dissection, organ harvesting, and open heart surgery, as well as management of  a “do not resuscitate” patient in the operating suite.

Photo: York College nursing students in the operating room at York Hospital: Abby Groft, Ryan Gladfelter, Mandi Jacoby, Erin Boswell,  Ashley Hurst, Frank Wisniewski, Rachel Tarbert, John Frizalone, and Tyler Frantz.