A projected deficit in the perioperative workforce of 32,000 perioperative nurses retiring by 2024, creates an inability to meet the nursing needs of the United States population. The need for experienced perioperative nurses has been increasing while the availability of nurses with perioperative education has been decreasing. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experience of post-licensure nurses who participated in a perioperative clinical rotation within their baccalaureate nursing program and did that experiential experience affect the recruitment and employment for perioperative nursing to halt the impending shortage. The integrations of Kolb’s experiential learning theory and Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy model was the framework that supported the study. Thirteen interviews were conducted using van Manen’s (1990) method for researching the lived experience. The two themes emerging from the data were value and attitude. Subthemes under value are gaining knowledge and skill set and a different type of nursing. Subthemes under attitude are (a) communication with the medical team and advocacy for families and patients. The experiential perioperative clinical rotation affected the study participants’ interest for working in the operating room (OR). Most had a highlighted interest in the specialty, and those participants’ not choosing the OR as their choice of employment expressed that the experience positively affected the type of nurse they are today. Experiential learning can build the fundamental knowledge necessary to understand the novice perioperative nurse’s role as a career choice.