European Perioperative Nursing Day Date in the current year: February 15, 2024

Modern professional nursing was founded by Florence Nightingale, an English social reformer who served as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War (1853–1856). The annual International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday, May 12.

Over the following years, a number of nursing specialties have developed. They include, but are not limited to, advanced practiced nursing, ambulatory care nursing, cardiac nursing, dental nursing, emergency nursing, geriatric nursing, neonatal nursing, obstetrician nursing, oncology nursing, orthopedic nursing, perioperative nursing, school nursing, and more.

Perioperative nurses, also known as operating room nurses (OR nurses), are responsible for taking preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative care of patients who are having invasive procedures. In some countries, there are several subtypes of perioperative nurses:

• Circulating nurses assist in managing the nursing care of patients during surgery; they are responsible for coordinating the needs of the surgical team and observing for breaches in asepsis during surgical procedures.
• Instrument nurses (scrub nurses) are responsible for managing the sterile instruments and equipment and passing them to the surgeon.
• RN first assistants (RNFAs), just like the name suggests, directly assist surgeons due to their high qualifications in providing extended perioperative care.
• Perianesthesia nurses (recovery nurses) are responsible for proving intensive postoperative care to patients as they wake up from anesthesia.

Operating room nurses work closely with other medical professionals such as surgeons, anesthesiologists, surgical technologists, nurse anesthetists, and nurse practitioners. Although surgeons and anesthesiologists often get all or most of the credit for successful surgeries, the contribution of OR nurses to this success is immense and should not be overlooked.

European perioprative nurses have celebrated their professional holiday every February 15 since the mid-2000s. The European Perioperative Nursing Day was established by the European Operating Room Nurses Association (EORNA), a professional organization that strives to develop and enhance perioperative patient care across Europe. Since the holiday has been adopted by some non-European countries, it is sometimes referred to as International Perioperative Nursing Day.

The aim of the European Perioperative Nursing Day is to highlight the contribution of operating room nurses and the importance of promoting and maintaining a high standard of perioperative care. The holiday is marked by conferences, seminars, workshops, round table discussions, and other events and activities where perioperative nurses can exchange professional experience and reflect on important issues of the profession.