Perioperative education. Transforming preceptor program into perioperative elective

Perioperative educators must identify the specific learning needs of their staff members and develop and provide programs relevant to those needs. These programs must have administrative support, or they will fail. As perioperative nurses, we must go beyond preceptor programs. Educators in undergraduate programs need to include perioperative courses in their curricula. If a perioperative elective is included in basic nursing curricula, students will better be able to meet the needs of their profession and their patients. A perioperative elective in the nursing curriculum would expose students to perioperative nursing and recruit the interested ones. Students who choose not to work in the OR will at least have gained an understanding of aseptic technique and teamwork. Our first preceptor course was held in May 1986. As of this writing, 11 programs have been completed. In May 1990, we met our goal of participating in a perioperative elective, which shows that educational goals can be achieved with cooperative efforts between academic and clinical programs.