Preparation of nursing students for operating room exposure

English: The South African Nursing Council (SANC) requires that all nursing students rotate and work in the operating room. Most of these students have never been inside an operating room and feel unsure of what is expected of them due to the fact that they are not proficient in most of the skills that will assist them in their participation within this set-up. These students are unable to participate and learn on their first rotation in the operating room, leaving the students often feeling in the way and with a negativity regarding operation room nursing. Implemented preparation programmes in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, has proven that improved preparation programmes are successful. A study was conducted to establish what should be in such a preparation programme, as well as what teaching strategies would be most beneficial. The study was done in the field of Health Professions Education and lies in the domain of academic programme development, as the view was to improve the student nurse’s preparation for OR rotation. The study was interdisciplinary, as it reaches across Health Professions Education and Nursing. For this study, a descriptive qualitative inquiry was used by means of two nominal group sessions for data collection and the assimilation of a literature review on the topic. One nominal group was undertaken with third-year nursing students that had just completed their placement in the operating room and the other group comprised of personnel working in the operating room where the students were placed. The data were written verbatim on a flip board and categories were identified by the researcher. These categories were compared and discussed with regard to the findings and the recommendations of the literature review in mind. The categories identified were:  Documentation  Swab and instrument control  Maintaining of sterility  Equipment  Orientation  Theatre preparation. Preferred teaching strategies that were identified:  Formal lecture with written test  Practical group sessions  Pre-placements preparation  Simulation and demonstration  Visual learning. All of the participants agreed that the current preparation/orientation programme do not adequately prepare the students for optimal participation or learning during their placement and that a programme that ensured that the students are able to perform certain tasks from the first day of placement would be equally beneficial for personnel and students. This could improve learning of the students while improving their overall experience of the operating room. This study provides recommendations on the content for a preparation programme and the results may be used to develop an improved preparation programme.