Shaping the Future: The Vital Role of an OR NPDP

I’m proud to be an OR Nursing Professional Development Practitioner (NPDP). This is a very important job that influences the newest generations of OR nurses and other OR healthcare professionals. I’m sure you’ve heard that OR nurses are special, but I’m here to say that OR NPDPs are truly a special group. 

I have been our hospital’s only OR NPDP for almost 13 years. So far, though, my total time spent in the OR will be 26 years this year. I’ve spent 13 years prior in open heart, general, gyn and plastic surgery. I had always loved to teach, as I was a CPR instructor, preceptor, and I helped our educators with various projects. Since 2012 when I became NPDP, I have taught 20 Periop 101 classes, which translates to more than 120 new OR nurses, and hundreds of other new hires and students.

One of the main reasons a NPDP is critical to new hires is that we are the first to introduce this awesome area of nursing to not only the new nurses, but also to new hires, medical students, residents, nursing students, paramedic students, and more. Our OR orients over 300 people in a year. As NPDPs, we must remain excited about our profession and about teaching. If these new people who are visiting - especially nursing students - don't get a good feel for our department, they will not want to come to our department. And we know that OR nursing is not taught much in nursing schools anymore.   

As an OR NPDP, I know it’s important to suggest and encourage our hospital to pair with local nursing schools and allow shadowing. Due to this exposure, we have fortunately been able to hire three or four student nurse externs per year. Thankfully, we have been able to retain most of them for our Periop 101 classes. They are so well prepared and excited to join us, I joke with them that they’ll teach their own class and I’ll go on vacation. 

OR NPDPs share theory, policy, and the right way to do things – always. There are shortcuts out there, but we all know that doing things the right way doesn’t take that much more time. We are abreast of the changes, whether it be an AORN Guideline or a hospital policy. We relay these changes to staff and our class. One of my students nicknamed me “Book” in 2019 and has called me that ever since. His class made me a personalized mug.

OR NPDPs see the good days, the bad days, and everything in between with our new hires (as well as having good and bad days of our own). Being someone they can trust most times is enough to just get them through the day. Many have thanked me for being their “safe space” that when something goes wrong, and they feel confident they can come to me and vent. 

One of my proudest stories is about a new hire who started in a role to help clean rooms and provide basic patient care. She ran on her local fire truck/ambulance outside of work, so she already had some interest in healthcare. She attended a lab with the Periop 101 nurses to learn about how her role would impact patient care. I was teaching sterile technique, pouring fluids, and opening supplies. The next week, she was so excited to tell me she went on an accident call and used what I taught her so she could better care for the patient. She also told me I inspired her so much that she was going to enroll in nursing school, and I teared up. She will be graduating with her RN this year. 

To me, that is the ultimate compliment – she wants to be an OR nurse because of what I taught her in one day. She truly is the epitome of advancing oneself and working hard. I’m proud of her.

NPDPs need to know how to teach people and understand how they learn. Adult learners benefit from knowing rationales – the “why” behind something. I believe in this so much that one of the Periop 101 students took it upon herself to count the number of true stories I told the class in order to get the “why” across. She came up with 46 stories in a 12-week period of time. 

Sometimes, OR NPDPs need to be reminded of their own value. A male student pulled me aside one day. He had appreciated my teaching and was telling me how important my job was to young people. He said, “Bec, you are shaping the lives of these young nurses. You really have an important job and are truly appreciated.” To hear that made me tear up. I had thought I was just doing my job. That day, my student truly made a mark on me and made me realize that I do have an important job, that I do impact people more than I may realize, and that I love what I do. I am “just” the OR NPDP.