Hospitals in Texas and Wisconsin have partnered with academia and AORN to add the PeriOp 101 curriculum to BSN programs—an approach that shows promise for developing OR nurses of the future. Launched in 2012, both programs have helped prepare new nurses for the rigors of the OR and they’ve also…
What would you do if you had more than 50 open positions and 40 travel nurses in your OR? If you were part of the team at University of Virginia Medical Center (UVAMC) in Charlottesville, you would get busy recruiting and retaining staff. “We knew we couldn’t continue down that…
A sluggish economy continues to drive OR staffing, according to the 23rd annual OR Manager Salary/Career Survey. Although economic growth in the US has ticked slightly upward, 70% of respondents say the economy affected their OR staffing in the past 6 months, comparable to 68% last year and 69% in…
The economy continues to present staffing and budgetary challenges, our annual staffing survey finds; little has changed since the 2008 recession despite slightly better overall conditions (see cover story). Perioperative leaders report they’ve had to reduce overtime, eliminate open positions, and tell staff to take time off without pay in…
Hospitals have aggressive cost reduction goals coupled with more quality incentives. “In the past, we would hear of goals in the millions of dollars,” says Lani Berman, MPH, MBA, senior vice president, performance services for VHA Inc. Today, she says goals are often in the hundreds of millions, especially for…
A new study brings welcome news of a surprising uptick of young people entering nursing, suggesting the RN workforce will grow faster than anticipated over the next 20 years. A second study finds new RNs stick close to home for nursing school and jobs, raising questions about how to improve…
RN employment has risen during the recession, yet large shortages are still expected 243,000 more RNs were employed full-time in hospitals in 2008 compared to 2007—an unprecedented increase of 18%. Younger nurses are entering the workforce in higher numbers. Still, a shortfall of RNs is expected to develop about 2018…
A year or so ago, managers were worried about recruiting nurses and replacing veteran staff. Suddenly, with the economic downturn, it's a different story. Nurses are asking for more hours. They are willing to work overtime and even take call. Some are postponing retirement. Peter Buerhaus RN, phD ,FAAN What…
OR nursing leaders are facing a worsening shortage of staff, particularly RNs, according to the 2007 annual OR Manager Salary/Career Survey. In the survey's seventh year of including staffing issues, the number of open positions and vacancy rates rose in contrast to last year, when the shortage seemed to be…