Designing an OR tour for perioperative nurse week

AORN Journal,  Sept, 2007  by Fay Christina Johnson,  Peggy Boyles

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In addition to educating the public and helping alleviate fears about surgery, an OR tour can attract nursing students to the perioperotive setting.

At some point in their lives, most people will undergo surgery or will have a loved one who undergoes surgery. Many of these patients and their family members will be unfamiliar with the perioperative environment and fearful about the surgical experience. It is important, therefore, to educate the public about the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative phases of surgery and to introduce them to the roles of the nurses who care for surgical patients during each of these phases.

Each November, in celebration of Perioperative Nurse Week, nurses at Providence St Vincent Hospital, Portland, Oregon, host a tour of the preoperative unit, several ORs with mock surgical setups, and a mock postanesthesia care unit (PACU). In addition to educating the public about the surgical experience and helping to alleviate fears about surgery, the event can attract students not only to the nursing field, but also to the perioperative nursing specialty. This article provides guidelines for setting up an OR tour.

SCHEDULING

A tour committee should begin planning approximately two months ahead of the projected tour date because many details are involved regarding publicity, staffing, set up, other logistics, and conducting the tour itself. The tour project coordinators should begin by meeting with the OR director and hospital administrators to explain the plan and obtain their buy-in. Support from the administration is invaluable and can help ensure the success of the program.

The nurses at Providence St Vincent Hospital plan the event for a Sunday afternoon so the OR volume will be minimal. They conduct guided tours between I PM and 4 PM. Each tour takes approximately 70 to 90 minutes. Hosting the event on a weekend shortly before or just after Perioperative Nurse Week helps to promote and celebrate the perioperative nursing specialty.

STAFFING

The tour coordinators can enlist volunteers by putting sign-up sheets in each surgical services unit about two months before the event to ensure that enough people are available to help. A large number of dedicated volunteers is crucial to making the event a success. Approximately 15 to 20 volunteers are needed to staff four mock ORs, and another four nurses are needed to staff the preoperative areas. An additional four nurses are needed for the two bays in PACU, which can be simulated in the preoperative or postoperative area. Six or seven volunteers should act as tour guides and provide traffic control. Volunteers also can be enlisted from the anesthesia department to explain their roles in the OR.

Before the event, the volunteers should meet several times with the tour coordinators to receive their shift and duty assignments (eg, gallbladder room, 12 PM to 4 PM) and to review how the tour will be conducted, what is needed for the room setups, and what tasks must be completed. The volunteers can be scheduled for two-hour segments or to stay the entire time, depending on the number of volunteers. Some will need to stay an hour after the event to help clean up.

ADVERTISING AND PUBLICITY

The tour coordinators should meet with hospital marketing and public relations personnel to determine whether any money is available for advertising and to brainstorm ideas for reaching a large segment of the community. Posters and a flyer should be designed to publicize the event. Photographs of preoperative, OR, and PACU nurses can be used as the poster illustrations. The posters should be distributed throughout the hospital one month before the date of the tour to announce the tour and the celebration of Perioperative Nurse Week.

The flyer should

* include the date, time, and location of the event and an e-mail address to contact for questions;

* instruct the public where to meet in the hospital (eg, in the surgery waiting area); and

* contain information describing what will be included in the tour.

For example, the text might read:

   The tour will begin in the surgery waiting
   area where tour guides will escort the public
   in groups of 15 to the preoperative area. The
   nurses will explain how a patient is prepared
   for surgery. The guide will then take
   attendees to the ORs, where they can see
   mock setups of a total knee replacement, a
   laparoscopic gallbladder removal, a spine
   surgery, and a robotic procedure. The tour
   will conclude in the postanesthesia care unit.

Flyers can be sent to high school teachers and nursing schools. Other target groups might include scout troops, health career classes, and groups specific to the community. Flyers should also be sent to each department in the hospital and should be available to physicians and staff in surgical services. The volunteers should encourage word-of-mouth marketing among perioperative nurses and surgeons and their family members.

The marketing department should release the flyer to the press a week before the tour, and the coordinators should again meet with marketing and public relations personnel to discuss whether television crews or reporters are expected at the event and what this will entail. The coordinators should keep the OR director informed of any media visits. The hospital photographer also should be consulted about his or her availability to take pictures of the event.