What Is Perioperative Nursing?

For patients and their loved ones, surgery can be a frightening experience that can take a toll on their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. To ensure the best health outcomes, surgical professionals must serve patients and their families compassionately and efficiently. 

Perioperative nursing is a specialized health care field that includes all nurses who work collaboratively with surgical teams to help coordinate, implement, and evaluate treatment throughout the surgical process. Perioperative nurses play a crucial role in keeping surgical patients safe and providing comprehensive care while remaining calm under pressure. 

Perioperative nurses may perform duties before, during, or after surgery. Since they interact with various team members, along with patients and their family members, they need to be detail oriented and have strong communication skills. Overall, their role is to support the surgical staff and provide a comfortable environment for patients. 

To get started in this profession, candidates must already be working as registered nurses (RNs). RNs can complete a perioperative nursing certificate program to gain the knowledge needed to specialize as a perioperative nurse.
 

Perioperative Nursing Definition

Also known as surgical or operating room nursing, perioperative nursing is a broad term that encompasses several surgical nursing roles. Nurses can choose to work in preoperative, operative, or postoperative care. 

Examples of perioperative nursing job titles include scrub nurse, operating room nurse, postanesthesia care unit (PACU) nurse, medical-surgical nurse, and circulating nurse. Nurses filling each of these roles perform different duties, but they all have the same goal: to provide safe and effective care to surgical patients.
 

What Is the Perioperative Nursing Certificate Curriculum?

To be eligible for a perioperative nursing certificate program, individuals must hold a current and valid RN license. Nurses entering this specialty typically have at least two years of related experience. With a combination of classroom and clinical experiences, these certificate programs typically address legal and ethical principles, communication techniques, and ways in which nurses are utilized during the surgical process. 

These certificate programs can also help prepare individuals to earn a professional certification, such as the certified perioperative nurse (CNOR) credential offered by the Competency and Credentialing Institute. 

The topics covered in a perioperative nursing certificate program often include the following: 

• Patient positioning 
• Wound management 
• Injury prevention 
• Surgery preparation 
• Aseptic techniques 
• Medication and anesthesia safety 
• Instrument examination
   

What Does a Perioperative Nurse Do?

Perioperative nurses provide vital hands-on care to patients before, during, and after surgical procedures. As members of a surgical operating team, they work in a collaborative and fast-paced environment assisting physicians during noninvasive and invasive procedures. Their expertise is needed in clinics, outpatient surgery centers, hospitals, private practices, and surgical units. 

Examples of what a perioperative nurse does can be divided into the three surgical phases — preoperative, operative, and postoperative — though nurses’ duties may overlap. 

Preoperative duties include the following: 

• Verifying patients’ identities 
• Completing intake paperwork 
• Cleaning surgical rooms and instruments 
• Helping to answer patients’ questions and calm their fears 

Operative duties include the following: 

• Following surgeons’ orders 
• Administering medications and fluids 
• Monitoring patients’ breathing, pain levels, and vital signs during surgery 
• Selecting and passing instruments and supplies to surgical staff 
• Working with equipment such as retractors, suctions, drills, monitors, lasers, and cameras, and troubleshooting any problems 
• Maintaining a sterile environment 
• Assisting with tube removal 

Postoperative duties include the following: 

• Providing postoperative resources 
• Monitoring patients for complications 
• Communicating with patients’ families about the progress of their surgeries 
• Counting and restocking medical supplies 
• Educating patients and their families on wound cleaning and pain management 
• Safely transporting patients to recovery rooms
   

Benefits of Working in Perioperative Nursing

Personal and professional advantages of entering the perioperative nursing field include the following:

Opportunity to Specializate

With so many types of surgeries and no shortage of surgical patients, perioperative nurses often have the opportunity to specialize in their area of interest. For instance, these professionals are needed in general, plastic, pediatric, cardiothoracic, and vascular surgeries.

Job Security

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were about 3.2 million registered nurses employed in the country as of 2022. According to Zippia estimates, there were more than 539,000 perioperative nurses employed as of 2024. 

The BLS projects 6% employment growth for RNs from 2022 to 2032. This faster-than-average growth projection shows that the need for nurses will likely remain consistent. Specifically, nurses will be in demand in hospitals, outpatient care centers, and same-day centers that offer surgery and rehabilitation.

High Income Potential

Payscale reports that operating room nurses had a median annual salary of $82,000 as of June 2024, with a salary range of $60,000 to $121,000. Salaries of individual nurses can vary depending on their education, experience, location, and employer. According to Zippia, salaries for perioperative nurses have risen nearly 40% since 2009.
 

Launch Your Perioperative Nursing Career

Perioperative nursing is a specialized field that offers diverse opportunities for experienced RNs. In addition to working closely with anesthesiologists, surgeons, and other surgical professionals, perioperative nurses can choose to work with patients before, during, or after surgery. 

If you’d like to receive training to enter the field, consider enrolling in the Certificate of Advanced Professional Development in Perioperative Nursing program at the Tseng College at California State University, Northridge. The eight-week program consists of one course that covers a wide range of essential topics. A total of 144 hours are required, which includes classroom, online, and clinical work. Students have access to simulated laboratories, classrooms, and clinical experiences. 

Find out more about this program and how it can prepare you for professional certification and entry into the surgical nursing workforce.