Laparoscopic Teaching Clinic Gives Nurses Hands-On Education in Low-Pressure Environment

In years past, perioperative nurses only had one way to gain hands-on experience in their specialty: assist during a live procedure under the guidance of a preceptor. The high-stakes surgical environment can be a formidable place to learn, however, leading some nursing experts to seek an alternative approach.

A new program at Cleveland Clinic is now providing a more relaxed, specialty-specific educational setting for perioperative nurses, where they’re taught to master the skills needed to support patients and the surgical team during minimally invasive procedures. Designed to give nurses the time and guidance required to understand laparoscopic techniques, the course provides an in-depth look at the equipment, instrumentation and supplies used in each nurse’s given surgical specialty.

“The operating room is an intense, fast-paced place, where patient safety is nonnegotiable – but those elements can make it a difficult teaching environment,” explains Anita Parry, MSN, RN, CNOR, Perioperative Educator Program Coordinator at Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital. “In the middle of a procedure, a preceptor may not have the bandwidth to tell a new nurse how to troubleshoot a certain piece of equipment, for example. The pressure can also compel preceptors to perform the most challenging tasks themselves rather than delegating them to a preceptee. We created this training program to circumvent those challenges and give nurses the space they need to learn, practice and ask questions freely.”

Personalized, hands-on training

Although new Cleveland Clinic nurses take part in a specialized, six-month perioperative nurse residency, the program doesn’t typically address the substantial number of hospital-specific tools used in minimally invasive surgery. This gap can steepen the learning curve for inexperienced nurses, many of whom may require a longer onboarding process, notes Parry.

The national nursing shortage seen during the COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted these knowledge gaps, she adds, when a stream of new nursing school graduates was hired to fill vacancies once filled by more experienced caregivers.

“It’s essential for perioperative nurses to have a strong understanding of how to prevent patient injuries, recognize potential complications, and program and operate different devices and instruments, but six months isn’t much time to learn all of that,” says Parry. “The extra experience is a game-changer, especially for those who are just beginning their careers.”

The need for high-quality nursing education will only intensify, she says, noting that the number of laparoscopic procedures performed in the U.S. has grown by 111% in the last two decades.

Knowledge is power

Each structured, half-day clinic enrolls a maximum of six caregivers. The small class size ensures that participants receive the personalized instruction they need, Parry notes.

Soon after launching the first course two years ago at Hillcrest Hospital, Parry was asked to share her content and educational strategies with Cleveland Clinic’s other perioperative educators, who have taken her lead by developing similar programs at their individual sites. Parry’s teaching model has been so effective, in fact, that its principles have been integrated into the standard perioperative nurse residency curriculum for all nurses hired by the healthcare system.

“The feedback we’ve received indicates that the extra education has helped increase our nurses’ competency and confidence with laparoscopic surgery – and that’s what I consider a success,” she says.