01/29/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/29/2025 14:00
After graduating from college, Lucas Parrish worked multiple odd jobs trying to find use for his biochemistry degree. He intended to pursue a graduate degree in anesthesiology, but that plan changed when he started taking care of his wife's grandmother after an accident.
"She fell and broke her shoulder and was no longer able to use her walker. Because of that, I ended up helping her around the house and helping take care of her," he said.
The experience reminded Parrish of when he worked as a certified nursing assistant while studying at Tennessee Tech University. Witnessing how he took care of his family, Parrish's aunt, who is a nurse at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, encouraged him to return to nursing and attend her alma mater, UT Health Science Center.
Parrish, originally from Waynesboro, Tennessee, began the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program with a goal to eventually become a certified registered nurse anesthesiologist (CRNA). When he learned the College of Nursing was starting an Operating Room (OR) Scholars program, he applied in hopes of gaining experience in the operating room.
Parrish is one of two students in the OR Scholars program's first cohort. Launched in 2023 in collaboration with Baptist Memorial Health Care, the program aims to help address the shortage of perioperative nurses, who fulfill nursing roles before, during, and after surgical procedures. The program grew last year with three students in its second cohort.
OR Scholars receive additional education and simulation in perioperative care and work in the Baptist OR during their first summer in the program. This additional training can help prepare students by reducing the time they must spend in orientation or residency at hospitals after graduating, and it can assist in the retention of perioperative nurses. Accepted students receive tuition support from Baptist, and in return, they agree to work for the hospital for two years after graduation.
"The collaboration between Baptist Memorial Health Care and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Nursing on the Operating Room Scholars program has been such a success that we expanded the program to include the cardiac catheter lab," said Mary Ellen Sumrall, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, vice president and chief nursing executive of Baptist Memorial Health Care. "Perioperative nurses are in high demand because of the increase in surgeries and an aging workforce. Through the OR Scholars program, nursing students are exposed to didactic and clinical experiences in highly complex procedural areas to help prepare them to work in the OR immediately after graduation. I am very excited to be a part of this leading-edge training."
Racheal Otts is in the second cohort of OR Scholars. Nursing is her second career path, having previously worked as a teacher in North Mississippi for a decade. She considered pivoting to nursing after seeing the amazing work of a hospice nurse who cared for her grandmother at the end of her life. She said a conversation about finances with her sister, a nurse at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, also convinced her to make the career change.
"Teaching just wasn't cutting the bill," she said. "My sister and I talked about things that I tend to generally have a knack for, and caring for people is one of them, so she said, 'Why don't you try nursing?' And so, I thought about it and decided there was no better time than the present, so I sold my house and used the money to go to nursing school."
Otts is training in the catheterization laboratory, or cath lab, which falls under the OR umbrella. The cath lab is an examination room in a hospital or clinic where diagnostic imaging equipment is used to visualize the arteries and chambers of the heart and treat abnormalities. Otts shadowed in the cath lab for three days before applying to be an OR Scholar, and by the end of that experience, she was certain it was where she wanted to be.
"By my second day, I had multiple people who were very willing to teach me what to do in a very hands-on way-not in a way that made me feel like they were condescending to me or talking down to me because I was a student, but in a way that genuinely felt helpful and that genuinely talked me through the process of what was happening, what I was looking at, what materials to use, what to do, and what not to do," she said. "There's never been a moment when I've felt like I couldn't ask somebody for help. I've never felt belittled or like I was a burden to anybody."
Having enjoyed her experience so far, Otts is confident in her desire to work in the cath lab long-term. For Parrish, being part of the OR Scholars program is a beneficial step toward his goal of being a CRNA one day.
"The program with UT Health Science Center and Baptist has been very valuable, both in terms of the financial assistance and the experience it has given me in the OR," he said. "I would 100% recommend doing the OR Scholars program because you learn so much, you work at a different pace than on the floor, and you get to feel more confident in what you are doing as a nurse."
This story was originally featured in the Fall 2024 issue of the College of Nursing Magazine.