5 Pieces of Advice from a Surgical Nurse

• A surgical nurse (also known as a scrub nurse) plays a crucial role in patient care, from acting as the surgeon’s assistant to monitoring sterility and safety.  
• It is essential to advocate for yourself, the patient, or any event you feel needs attention in the operating room.  
• Pay attention to the surgeon for learning opportunities and to gauge any frustration or the tone of the procedure at hand.  

In surgery, many vital roles contribute to a successful and safe procedure — among those is the surgical nurse, also known as a scrub nurse

A scrub nurse is the surgeon’s assistant throughout the procedure, handing them instruments and medications, and watching for sterility and safety. The scrub nurse’s role has its challenges, from learning new instrumentation and methods to keeping up with the flow of surgery for each surgeon you work with. 

Here’s what experienced scrub nurses will tell you if you’re just getting started in the field. 

1. Advocate — For Yourself and Others

Never be afraid to speak up for yourself, the patient, or anything that needs attention in the operating room (OR). From issues like sterility, contamination, and unsafe practices to the goings-on of staff in the OR, each team member has a voice. And everyone needs to work together to keep a safe environment.

Advocating for yourself early in your career is also important. You are the only one who knows what you know or where you need more experience. Keep seeking experiences that will give you the confidence to jump into surgery and know you can efficiently perform the task.   

2. Have an Open Mind as a Surgical Nurse

Every surgeon, surgery, preceptor, and patient bring a different aspect to a case. Once you learn the basics of sterility, safe instrument handling, and general flow within the OR, be open to learning from the team around you. Especially early on in your learning, each preceptor will have little pearls of wisdom to share with you. Take those and tuck them away in your bank! You may not always jive with whom you are learning from, whether it’s a personality clash or a practice you don’t like. But take what you can from each interaction to build your knowledge and experience.

3. Pay Attention to the Surgeon

Paying attention to the surgeon and the surgery is a given, but listening is essential. Glean the tidbits of information they may be teaching you or a resident surgeon; you can often learn so much from their years of practice. On the other hand, listen to the frustration or tone of the procedure. If there is an unplanned event, like excess bleeding, the surgeon can become tense and may need you to move faster and keep pace.

In a scenario where a patient is bleeding more than expected, additional support in the surgical field may be necessary. This takes action on your part to communicate with your circulating nurse to get more sutures, hemostatic agents, different equipment, and maybe even a second scrub nurse to assist. Learn from each of these scenarios to be ready and helpful when it happens next time.

4. Keep Your Back Table Neat

Your back table is YOUR space! Find an organization you like and follow it each time you set up. This will allow you to be efficient with your set-up time and flow throughout the case. Good practices to keep in mind include keeping your sharps safe, protecting your liquids from spilling, and not tucking anything away — hours later, you might forget where you put them, and it can be stressful to go hunting for them. 

But don’t change the setup too much if you’re working off someone else’s table for a lunch break or relief. They know where they placed things, and reaching for an item that isn’t there is very frustrating. You’ll appreciate it when you return from a break. Plus, neatness is just good practice. It supports safety and sterility throughout the procedure.  

5. Allow Good Days to Balance Out the Bad Days

Like anything, as a surgical nurse, you’ll have good days and bad days. Maybe you’re assigned to a surgery you have only done once. Or you don’t click with the staff in the OR that day. Maybe the new equipment ordered isn’t ready, and the surgeon is in a foul mood.

Possibly, you dropped three different instruments as you set up your table; that was the last sterile pan. These are all authentic scenarios.

Give yourself the grace of knowing these days will be interspersed between the best days. Tomorrow, you’ll find yourself in the OR where the right music is playing in the background, working with your favorite circulating nurse and surgeon, and you’ll love the case you’re performing. Yay, all the stars aligned.

These days will ebb and flow, and the tough days will be easier to deal with when you give yourself the grace of knowing how to push through them.   

The Bottom Line

Being a scrub nurse is very rewarding. Assisting in life-changing and necessary surgeries can be a source of pride and professional satisfaction. Of course, it has challenges like any career, but the rewards typically outweigh the disadvantages. 

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