3010 - So Much to Learn, So Little Time: The Many Hats of a Perioperative Nurse Leader

Overview/Abstract: The evolving landscape of perioperative patient care demands that nurse leaders step into roles that transcend their original clinical specialties. Unlike in the past, contemporary leaders may not have direct experience across all phases of surgical care—preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative. Today’s nurse leaders must navigate and lead in these clinical areas, as well as sterile processing, perioperative informatics, business operations, and regulatory compliance, often without prior experience. As a result, they must rapidly build competence in areas beyond their training and experience.

This session explores practical strategies for expanding leaders’ knowledge and confidence in areas outside their clinical backgrounds. Participants will identify accessible resources and methods to strengthen their leadership presence across the full spectrum of perioperative care. Emphasis will be placed on how these strategies can be embedded into succession planning and leader development models to foster interdisciplinary understanding, reinforce shared governance, and ensure sustainable leadership across perioperative teams.