Editor's Note After 124 years, the Lutheran School of Nursing in St Louis has closed, the August 1 St Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The School was the last nursing diploma program in Missouri. On July 27, South City Hospital’s CEO wrote a letter to faculty announcing the news, citing enrollment and…

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Editor's Note Researchers at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, gathered an interdisciplinary team to organize a safe and time efficient precleaning workflow for their fast-paced GI clinic that decreased time spent precleaning by 50%. The researchers identified inadequate precleaning processes, including staff who did not follow…

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Nationally known for her work in helping current and future nurse leaders to develop their leadership and coaching skills, Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, will return to the OR Manager Conference in Denver, Colorado, in October 2022. Over the past 2 years, Sherman has done 85 virtual workshops…

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Generating student interest in the OR can help OR leaders fill staffing gaps. For example, Debra Sparks, MSM, BSN, RN, CNOR, director of regional perioperative services for The Metro Health System in Cleveland, Ohio, has hired nurses who spent time in the organization as part of their university-based OR coursework…

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May 2022 brought business leaders and operations managers back together in person for the OR Business Management Conference. This year marked its 10th anniversary, and the intimate event highlighted several facets of the behemoth issue that is staffing. Several sessions touched on the topic, including: • “Organize the chaos and…

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Staffing and labor costs have been consuming the thoughts of managers at all levels of leadership. Since the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated work conditions and safety concerns, healthcare leaders have had to deal with an unprecedented number of resignations and increased turnover with the rise of travel nursing. Calls for greater…

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Concerns about the pipeline of OR nurses existed long before COVID-19, but the pandemic has heightened these concerns. Many nurses plan to exit the profession in the next few years (sidebar, Workforce outlook). Unfortunately, the pipeline of replacement nurses is nearly dry as student experiences in the OR have been…

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Perioperative nursing was the first recognized nursing specialty in the late 1800s. Modern education and training of nurses entering the specialty is still like this early period. Orientation is heavily reliant on workplace training and precepted learning experience. However, these long-standing methods have not been rigorously studied for effectiveness. The…

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Orientation is the backbone of a sustainable workforce. Part 2 of OR Manager’s two-part series focuses on the orientation of experienced and per diem nurses, social onboarding, and how the pandemic has affected orientation, post-orientation efforts, and evaluation.   Experienced nurses Experienced OR nurses are typically placed on the fast…

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GENERAL Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Department of Defense or the US Government. Developing OR nurses for the future is a goal of all OR managers. Orientation programs can vary depending on the…

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