Series of events transforms Lauren Wilbur’s career path

Lauren Wilbur

As Lauren Wilbur looks back on five years with Mayo Clinic, she points to a few experiences that changed the course of her career. A day shadowing staff working in the operating room set her current course.


Lauren Wilbur hustles through the hospital halls between Periop 101 training courses. The training is part of a six-month program for new nurses at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Wilbur navigates around construction on her way to a staff area where she can catch up on her studies.

She just graduated from nursing school in August, but she's no stranger to Mayo Clinic.

Wilbur first came to Mayo Clinic in Florida in 2018 and worked in an administrative role, planning continuing education events and managing equipment resources. When the pandemic set in, she felt a call to do more.

She decided to go back to school and pursue nursing while continuing to work full-time at Mayo Clinic.

"I just have never wanted to work anywhere else," she says. "I already loved the culture and the people, so I wanted to make the transition while staying at Mayo."

While she studied, Wilbur found hands-on training opportunities, such as working at the COVID-19 testing site in 2021. One thing she had not experienced that piqued her interest was seeing the inside of an operating room. To make that happen, she arranged to shadow Cedric Ortiguera, M.D., Orthopedic Surgery, and a surgical team as they performed a total knee replacement.

"I already loved the culture and the people, so I wanted to make the transition while staying at Mayo."

Lauren Wilbur

"The day of the surgery, I got fully dressed in the proper attire and prepared to be a fly on the wall — observing from a distance," Wilbur says. "Before the surgery started, Dr. Ortiguera introduced himself and invited me to join the team huddle. He said, 'You are a part of our team today. If you see anything at all that you do not like or you do not approve of, please let me or one of our team members know because we are here to serve this patient.'"

Wilbur says in that moment, she no longer felt like a nursing student — she felt included and felt a sense of shared responsibility for the patient's outcome.

"The experience was incredible for me," Wilbur says. "Each person in the operating room has their own important and individual roles that come together in symphony to ensure a successful surgery. After that shadow day, it was clear to me that I could see myself working in the operating room."

Observing the collaboration and structure of the setting motivated her to apply to the Periop training program after graduating from nursing school. She was accepted and began training in October, and she's eyeing early 2023 for a return to the operating room — this time involved even more in surgery.

"I'm training to be one of the nurses that inspired me on my shadow day," Wilbur says. "You meet people that have worked here for 20 or 30 years because they love it so much — that could be me someday."


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