Externship Program

This program will prepare senior nursing students for entry into employment in the area(s) of Surgical Services. This externship gives the student the opportunity to explore every service of Surgical Service. The extern will spend a week in each specialty.

The specific units include:

• Surgical Admission Unit
• SameDay Surgery Center
• Admission/Discharge and Recovery Unit
• Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU)
• Main Operating Room
• SameDay Surgery Operating Room
• Endoscopy Lab
• Our New Spine and Orthopedic Surgery Center

After the rotation through the different services, the extern will pick an area of focus based on their career goal. This is a great opportunity for the senior nursing student to get a little taste of what happens in Surgical Services at Hillcrest Medical Center. After passing the NCLEX, the new graduate will be eligible to apply for the next level of education. HMC offers AORN’s PeriOperative 101 nursing course, which is a program designed to provide basic didactic perioperative education. This program will give the Novice OR nurse the rationale and theory needed to provide safe patient care. The course is 5 weeks of didactic work and 12 weeks of hands on clinical rotation in the Operating room. See course description on our Nurse Residency site.

Hillcrest Medical Center’s AORN’s Perioperative Nursing Course 101 Residency

This 18 week program is designed to provide basic didactic perioperative education that will give the novice OR nurse the rationale and theory needed to provide safe patient care. It is used in conjunction with a 12 week clinical preceptorship.

Student modules include:

• Introduction to Perioperative Nursing
• Surgical Environment
• Latex allergy
• Perioperative Assessment
• Aseptic Technique
• Sterilization and Disinfection
• Environmental Sanitation and Terminal Cleaning
• Safety in the OR
• Scrubbing and Circulating
• Anesthesia
• Medications and solutions
• Wound Healing/Hemostasis
• Positioning the Surgical Patient
• Needles and Sutures
• Sponges
• Surgical Instruments
• Specimens
• Skin Preps
• Surgical Draping
• Electrosurgery
• Tourniquets and Implants
• Patient/Family Education
• Endoscopic Surgery
• Laser Safety in the OR
• Professionalism

The OR nurse will receive their own copy of the PeriOperative Program, current AORN “Standards, Recommended Practices, and Guidelines”, and Alexander’s “Care of the Surgical Patient”. After successful completion and testing, the OR nurse will receive 83 credit hours of education and a 1 year membership to AORN. 2 year commitment to HMC surgical service is required for the program. Preceptor rotation will include but not limited to: General/Plastic/Burn Surgery, Neurosurgery, Orthopedic, Gynecological, Urology, Cardiovascular, Outpatient specialty surgery.