AORN, the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, is the professional organisation for nurses working in surgery. It was founded in 1949 by operating room nurses who wanted a national forum for sharing practice, and reports about 44,000 members.
The guidelines
Its central product is the Guidelines for Perioperative Practice, an evidence-based manual covering sterile technique, instrument processing, surgical attire, positioning, counts, environmental controls and much else.
The guidelines matter beyond the membership because hospitals and ambulatory surgery centres write their own policies from them, accreditors and surveyors expect to see them followed, and they surface in litigation as evidence of the accepted standard of care. A nurse working in an operating room in the United States is working inside these documents whether or not they belong to the association.
They are also revised regularly, which is why a departmental policy citing an old edition is a finding waiting to happen.
Certification
The perioperative credential is awarded by a separate certifying body rather than by the association, following the usual separation between advocacy and credentialing in nursing. See nursing specialties.
The specialty context
Perioperative nursing sits apart from most other specialties in two ways that show up in the workforce data.
Surgical services has one of the lowest turnover rates in nursing at 14.9 percent, against a national average of 17.6 percent, and it is one of the harder specialties to recruit into because the skills are not transferable from general acute care without substantial training. Hospitals that lose an operating room nurse are usually looking at a long search or a training programme rather than a lateral hire. See nurse turnover and retention.
The association's education work reflects that. Much of it is aimed at bringing registered nurses without operating room experience into the specialty, which is one of the few reliable ways to increase the supply.
Related
- Nursing organizations
- Nursing specialties
- Nurse turnover and retention
- Nurse staffing and patient outcomes
- Scope of practice
Sources
- About AORN. Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, for the 1949 founding, membership and the Guidelines for Perioperative Practice. Accessed September 9, 2026.
- National Health Care Retention and RN Staffing Report. NSI Nursing Solutions, 2026 edition, for turnover by specialty. Accessed September 9, 2026.