Update on Scrubbing

My crash course in becoming a scrub nurse is over. And, like a few other things I've encountered, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had made it out to be in my head.

I dreaded learning this last role of the L&D nurse..... But, it turned out to actually be something I kinda enjoyed. I think it may be my perfectionistic nature.... But, I liked the exactness and precision that was called for. I kept the surgery field and my mayo stand (the tray the instruments lay on during surgery) meticulously in order... It felt good to arrange the instruments around the mayo stand in a precise order... then as an instrument was discarded by the physician, I lined it back up in its proper place.... I found it natural to keep right up with the suctioning and "blotting" as they call it....in order to keep a clean surgical site....

The thing the doctors desire the most out of their scurb nurses is for the nurse to "Anticipate." No, it's not enough to know your instruments and hand them to the Dr. quickly when asked for... You must learn to "Anticipate" what instrument the doctor wants so they don't have to burden themselves by asking for the instrument... They can simply put their hand out.... HA!!! (sorry, that made me laugh)... It's true, though

Anyway, by the last section I did, I actually "anticipated" correctly at one point. The doctor was doing a tubal at the end of the section... So, I watched carefully and purposefully remembered the order of the instruments he needed while doing the right fallopian tube, so when he got to the left fallopian tube he simply held out his hand (WHEW, I was glad that I had paid close attention on the right side!) and I correctly gave him the right instruments in the correct order throughout the rest of the tubal..... A Small Victory.... But it felt good.

It was not bad at all.... In the second week of training, I did 5 sections independently.... I feel ready to go with this part of it now, too. Although, all of the sections I scrubbed in on were scheduled... I would like to do one soon that is an emergency... Just for the experience of needing to do all of it in a rush.... Not that I wish anybody an emergency situation... I just want to be experienced and prepared for such a situation, you know.