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AFSC 46S4, Staff
AFSC 46S3, Qualified
AFSC 46S1, Entry

Specialty Summary. Plans, directs, and coordinates activities of the Operating Room Department. Maintains optimum standards of nursing care and practice through preoperative and postoperative assessment planning, implementation, and evaluation of patient care. Related DoD Occupational Group: 6E.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Provides professional nursing care to patients undergoing surgery. Prepares and maintains operating room for all surgical procedures. Establishes and utilizes a checklist to monitor the physical plan of the operating room and equipment for conformity to all national standards for ensuring safety for the patient and all personnel. Assembles the type and quantity of material and special equipment needed for daily procedures and possible emergencies. Circulates and scrubs for surgical procedures. Responds to surgical emergency requirements such as cardiac, pulmonary, or respiratory failure and hemorrhage.

Maintains open communication lines, both intradepartmentally and interdepartmentally, to provide for total needs of the patient. Conducts preoperative and postoperative visits. Discusses operative procedures with patients and informs them of what to expect during surgery. Consults with the operating surgeon and establishes priorities of care for each patient entering the operating suite. Coordinates with other hospital units, which include recovery room, intensive care, obstetrics, and nursing units, on patients’ progress and any special equipment or supplies that will be needed for the patient returning from surgery.

Manages operating room activities. Directs and instructs personnel in preparing, sterilizing, and caring for operating room equipment and supplies. Supervises central sterile supply service activities. Maintains concise and complete records and reports. Coordinates an ongoing, in-service education program to continually update knowledge and skills of all assigned operating room nursing personnel.

Specialty Qualifications:

Knowledge. Knowledge is mandatory of operating room techniques and management.

Education. For entry into this specialty, graduation from an accredited school of nursing acceptable to the Surgeon General, HQ USAF, is mandatory.

Training. For award of AFSC 46S3, completion of an Operating Room (OR) Nursing Course is mandatory.

Experience. For award of AFSC 46S3, a minimum of 12 months of experience is mandatory in operating room assignments. Experience must include all phases of operating room technique and management such as preparing operating room units, preparing patients for surgery, and assisting medical officer during surgery; and conducting instrument and equipment sterilization procedures. NOTE: Time spent completing courses in operating room technique and management is creditable toward experience requirements.

Other. None.

Specialty Shredouts:

None

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Above Information Derived from AFMAN 36-2105