Do you scrub and/or circulate c-sections?

[cosmicmama, BSN, RN]

Hi all...I have over ten years of high risk L&D experience in a medium sized community hospital, and also have done a travel assignment at a huge teaching facility in Phoenix. I have never had to scrub or circulate a c-section at the places I've worked. It was done by OR nurses at the smaller ones, and travelers were not required to do it at the one in Phoenix. I'm now looking for my next travel assignment, and I'm having trouble finding one because all the places I'm interviewing (all in California at this time) are requiring experience circulating c/sections. Despite my more-than-adequate qualifications in all other areas, it's a deal breaker for them. I'm interested in hearing what is customary where you work, and if you have to scrub, circulate, or both, and how big is your hospital? I'm wondering if bigger level III hospitals require it more than smaller ones. Thanks in advance for the info!

[NurseNora, BSN, RN]

I have scrubbed and circulated in the two large teaching hospitals where I have worked (one in Phoenix). Currently I work in a small rural hospital where I circulate for C/S. Ten years ago when I started in this small facility, all sections were done in the OR with their staff. A few years later, after a physical redesign, L&D started doing our own sections. All RNs are trained to circulate and most of the OB techs were trained to scrub.

If you point out all your other OB strengths, a hospital may be willing to train you to circulate. It's not that difficult. You already have a grounding in sterile technique,you just have to amp it up and be sure to identify and eliminate any bad habits you may have acquired, learn to identify instruments (which you'd have to do anyway because different areas of the country and even different hospitals may call the same instrument by different names), and learn some about assisting anesthesia.

Good luck.

[OB-nurse2013, BSN, RN]

Yes, we scrub and circulate all our C-sections. I actually love this aspect of the job. We prep them for surgery as well as recover them. Good Luck! :)

[robin29860]

on dayshift we circulate or do baby. at night we always circulate and do baby. if needed on nights we will scrub. this goes for both of th hospitals I have worked at in my area. we have other hospitals, but I don't know how they work.

[Katie71275]

We circulate and scrub. Sometimes we have a scrub tech or LPN from surgery come up to scrub but that's on days only. If we have an LPN on shift, they scrub. Circulating is super easy. I hate scrubbing, but I am a new RN and am not great at the instruments. I work at a teaching hospital.

[smallnurse10]

We circulate for sections and other surgical procedures but rarely if ever scrub. We have surgical techs that only work on our floor. We also do pre-op and pacu.

[MotherToPeanut]

I work in a Level I community hospital. We have around 350 deliveries annually. Our OB unit has its own dedicated OR. Fully oriented nurses are required to act as baby nurse, circulate, and scrub. We also do all of our own prep and recovery. In our facility it takes about 18 months to gain the experience for proficiency at all three OR positions. Occasionally on night shift if we have an emergent c-section a surgical nurse will come up to act as the scrub nurse. Our night shift nurses are required to flex to day shift as necessary to maintain their competencies in these roles.

[ReneeRN0521]

We circulate all c-sections and are all trained to scrub. We don't have to scrub all that often because we have scrub techs for just our floor, but if we have to run 2 rooms, we only have one tech, or at night then a nurse will scrub in too. When circulating we also do baby. Then we recover the patient after the surgery.

[monkeybug]

I've had to circulate everywhere I ever worked (and I did 5 travel assignments on both ends of the country in between permanent jobs.). I didn't scrub at the travel point in my career. The small hospital where I started my career would use a scrub, another nurse to assist (I know, I know, not typical) and one to circulate. At my last permanent hospital position, all nurses had to know how to scrub because we didn't always have techs (large regional hospital). If I ever had the choice, I would choose to scrub! So much more fun than circulating. We had a NICU team to do baby. The circulator would then recover the patient.

It's much better for the patient if the L&D staff is doing the section. Think about how much quicker they can do it rather than waiting on OR. We had an abruption come in once, and it only took us 11 minutes to get the baby out from the time she hit the door.

[serenity1]

We have to circulate all c-sections at my facility. We do not scrub unless we are certified to do so. We have scrub techs that are always on to do that.

[JenDenRN]

The hospital I am at we do the pre-op, circulate & PACU. We have either a scrub tech or OR to scrub. I wish they would train us to scrub, however. It is always a little stressful when our scrub tech calls in sick & we have to rely on the main OR scrub who's on call to arrive.

[Calinurse4]

I just started in L&D last week as a new grad and already had a scrub class today. A little overwhelming to say the least! I am training for 6 months, so it's not like I'll be doing it anytime soon, so I guess it was nice to have an idea of what will be expected of me. We prep, circulate, and scrub. Mom recovers in the PACU. Day shift has an OR team to help scrub but nights (which is what I'll be on) is on our own.