A Curriculum for Perioperative Nurse Deployment During a Pandemic. (3rd February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hemingway, Maureen W.; Silvestri, Sandra
• Is Part Of: AORN journal. Volume 113:Number 2(2021)
• Page Start: 138
• Page End: 145
• Publication Date: 2021-02-03
• Subjects: coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) -- pandemic -- cross‐training -- disaster planning -- general care model; Operating room nursing -- Periodicals; Soins infirmiers en salle d'opération -- Périodiques; Nursing -- Periodicals; Operating Room Nursing -- Periodicals; Perioperative Nursing -- Periodicals; Societies, Nursing -- Periodicals; 617.917
• DOI: 10.1002/aorn.13299
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0001-2092

Abstract

ABSTRACT: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic spread around the world, the US Surgeon General called for the cancellation of elective surgeries. At a large academic medical center in the Northeast, there was a resulting surplus of perioperative nurses who were deployed to inpatient units in need of skilled nursing care for a surge of COVID‐19 patients. To prepare them for deployment to inpatient units, perioperative leaders developed a core curriculum to ensure that the OR nurses possessed the skills and knowledge required to successfully care for patients outside the OR with the same level of care and compassion that they provided to perioperative patients. The leaders employed available resources at the hospital to design and implement the course in a short amount of time. This article describes the development of a curriculum for OR nurses to manage a surging patient volume on inpatient units because of the COVID‐19 pandemic.