OR Manager March 2022 - 25

Perioperative Survey
than half of OR leaders require a baccalaureate
degree when hiring, and only
12% require a perioperative nursing certification.
She stated that 7% report no
specific degree or certification requirements.
Even with these less than robust
hiring standards, hiring challenges
remain for perioperative leaders.
Perioperative nursing shortages
Saver, in OR Manager's October 2021
issue, reported that " staffing is OR
leaders' top concern when it comes
to the future of perioperative nursing. "
Saver then offered a representative
comment from the 2021 surveys that a
" lack of trained and committed nurses "
is a generalized concern.
CCI has an emeritus status where
nurses can " retire " their active credential
as they progress to retirement status
in perioperative nursing. We have
had a record volume in applications for
emeritus status for three consecutive
years. Anecdotal information from our
certificants presents a picture of large
numbers of perioperative nurses leaving
the specialty. Recent reports in the perioperative
literature substantiate CCI's
observations. This scenario points out
the need for workforce planning, but the
lack of data regarding the perioperative
specialty precludes cohesive action.
Historical data from the AORN surveys
reinforce the CCI evidence. In the
AORN data, we see a steady increase
in the percentage of open positions to
a high of 11% in the 2021 survey. Notably,
71% of respondents reported having
at least one open position, with the
average time to fill that position being
6 months. The data from years of OR
Manager surveys of perioperative leaders
and the AORN annual salary survey
show that there is some measure of
perioperative nurse shortages.
These staffing shortfalls must play
out in effects to patient care. The AORN
survey authors tell us that " 58% of respondents
report that staffing issues
have led to delayed or cancelled surgerwww.ormanager.com
ies
(an increase of 16% since 2020). "
They also report that 40% of the respondents
replied that a lack of experienced
perioperative nurses was the reason
for staffing shortfalls. Staff shortages
and the deficit of perioperative nurses
thus impacts the revenue for many US
healthcare facilities.
These facts lend a new perspective
to the need for workforce planning for
the specialty. The argument could be
made that our current, employer-led,
piecemeal approach has somehow sufficed
for decades. But the counter argument
is that the work of the OR is vital
for US healthcare and the revenue of
healthcare facilities. CCI maintains that
the risk is too great to not attempt to
achieve more cohesive workforce planning.
Standardize
to start workforce
planning
A logical first step to address perioperative
nursing shortages is to gather better,
more consistent data to be used for
workforce planning. Collectively, perioperative
nursing as a profession should
begin to address this shortfall in data.
Certification bodies, membership organizations,
and commercial publishers
all have pieces of the total picture for
perioperative nursing, but the whole of
the data is not synchronized. As noted
in the 2011 Future of Nursing Report,
other entities such as licensing and regulatory
boards could increase their data
gathering and standardization practices.
But with voluntary credentials like
the CCI certifications, there is a weak
link to licensing and regulatory bodies
and no mechanism to exchange
this sort of data. There is a diversity
of sources of information on the demographic
makeup of perioperative nursing,
but no one group has a central repository
of data that might be used for
workforce planning. The data we have is
fragmented, imperfect, and predicated
on self-reports. State boards of nursing
would seem to be a source for this
information, but few of these boards
gather data at the nursing specialty
level.
Going forward, CCI will continue to
gather more cohesive, detailed data
by expanding and standardizing the demographic
data we collect at multiple
contact points. We look forward to sharing
our work and research findings with
the perioperative community throughout
2022 in this publication. ORM
-James X Stobinski, PhD, RN, CNOR,
CSSM(E), CNAMB, is CEO of the
Competency and Credentialing
Institute (CCI). Samantha Hendrickson,
AA, AS, is credentialing coordinator,
and Carissa L. Homme, PhD, PMP, is
senior manager, test development and
certification, at CCI.
References
Bacon D R, Stewart K A. Results of the
2021 AORN salary and compensation
survey. AORN Journal. 2021.
114(6) 543-560.
Saver C. Survey: COVID 19 pandemic
takes toll on staffing. OR Manager.
September 2021.
Saver C. Survey: Dips in job satisfaction,
engagement may relate to pandemic.
OR Manager. October 2021.
Stobinski J X. Becoming a perioperative
nurse - the historical context,
industry insights. OR Today Magazine.
January 2021.
Stobinski J X. Perioperative nursing:
The apprenticeship model. OR
Today Magazine. February 2021.
The future of nursing: leading change,
advancing health. Institute of Medicine
Washington, DC: The National
Academies Press. 2011.
OR Manager | March 2022 25

https://www.ormanager.com/survey-covid-19-pandemic-takes-toll-staffing/ https://www.ormanager.com/survey-dips-job-satisfaction-engagement-may-relate-pandemic/ https://www.ortoday.com/becoming-a-perioperative-nurse-the-historical-context/ https://www.ortoday.com/perioperative-nursing-the-apprenticeship-model/?utm_content=155075188&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&hss_channel=fbp-197921383648040 https://www.doi.org/10.17226/12956 http://www.ormanager.com

OR Manager March 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of OR Manager March 2022