Chamberlain University and the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) Announce Expansion of Effort to Address a Critical Shortage of Operating Room Nurses

Chamberlain University, which has the largest nursing school in the U.S. and the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), creators of evidence-based guidelines and education resources for perioperative practice, announced today that three healthcare systems will be the first to join a workforce preparedness initiative addressing critical shortages of operating room nurses: Loyola Medicine, based in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois; Ochsner Health, located in the New Orleans area and serving the Gulf South; and Emory Healthcare in the Atlanta metropolitan region.

Starting in early 2022, Chamberlain and AORN will launch a 16-week online training module in perioperative nursing with content developed by AORN and available through Chamberlain that leads to a specialty badge. The initiative, designed to be aligned with perioperative industry-specific competencies defined by AORN, is a non-credit bearing program offered at no additional cost to students enrolled in Chamberlain’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. The three healthcare systems are joining with Chamberlain to provide students with on-site opportunities to gain insight in a supervised perioperative setting.

“We welcome these three esteemed healthcare systems as they join AORN and Chamberlain University in this national effort that represents Chamberlain’s ‘Practice Ready. Specialty Focused’ approach to addressing critical workforce needs in the perioperative setting,” said Karen Cox, PhD, RN, FACHE, FAAN, and president of Chamberlain.

This is the first educational initiative of its kind being offered in partnership with AORN, which developed the training module, and the intent is to scale the specialty badge program through Chamberlain’s national reach. Chamberlain, which is part of the Chicago-based workforce solutions provider Adtalem Global Education (NYSE: ATGE), will begin offering the specialty badge program to students at campuses in Chicago, Tinley Park, Ill., Addison, Ill., New Orleans and Atlanta, with the intent to expand nationally across all 23 of its campuses.

“We believe strongly that the expansion of this initiative through the participation of these three healthcare systems will create a model for addressing a nationwide need for more nurses entering the field who are committed to perioperative nursing,” said AORN’s CEO/executive director, Linda Groah, MSN, RN, CNOR, NEA-BC, FAAN.

For additional information: www.chamberlain.edu/AORN-Partnership

About Adtalem: adtalem.com

About Chamberlain University: chamberlain.edu

About AORN. www.aorn.org

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