Experiences of Operating Room Nurses on Duty Together with the Student Nurses

The study intended to answer the following objectives: a) to describe the experiences of operating room staff nurses as they go on duty in the area with the student nurses; b) to identify gaps and challenges; c) to describe their coping mechanisms employed to the identified problems. The descriptive exploratory method, which utilized in this study, is concerned with a picture of a situations as they naturally occur; exploration and description of a phenomenon in real-life situation. The descriptive method of research is the most appropriate since this study described the learning experiences of staff nurses assigned in the operating room as they interact with student nurses. The target population of this research survey is the staff nurses who are assigned in the operating room of a hospital. The study was conducted in two of the hospitals in Cagayan de Oro City. This study employed purposive-exploratory method in selecting the respondents to be studied. The researchers purposively chose informants, who were seen as able to add, support or reflect the developing theory in relation to the aims of the study (Crooks, 2004). A qualitative approach was used making use of a set of guide question for an in depth interview. Five out of six of the respondents said that the students need practice and supervision from them. Students who required a lot of supervision consumed more time to work with because the staff nurse had to help in coaching them to complete thetask. The nursing staffs know their roles also as educators and had to practice in demonstrating their patience and understanding when working with students. Nursing staff also related that it was helpful to spend with each student to determine their competency and in order to establish a trust relationship. The nurses also expressed frustration when working with problem students. It increased their workload and slowing the nurses down by taking too much of their time. Other nurses said that the students helped in decreasing decreased their workload and sometimes it give them a time to work on other routine activities in the area when they are together with some active students.

 

Keywords - Coping Mechanism, Gaps and Challenges, Experiences, Strategies, Student Nurses, Operating Nurse.