Assisting with Circumcisions

[Babsten22]

We are trying to align policies with our sister hospital and have come across a major difference. Newborn Circumcisions are assisted by RNs on our Mother Baby unit but by Patient Care Technicians at our sister hospital.

Our rational is that:

1. it is a surgical procedure

2. the infant needs assessed throughout and the site immediately post procedure, before it is dressed, as well periodically over the next 2 hours.

Can you tell me who assists the surgeon at your hospital?

Thanks in advance.

[AuDDoc]

As someone who has spent a lot of time in the nursery doing newborn infant hearing screenings, it has always been a physician (usually the OB who delivered the child) and a nurse assisting with the circ and then the nursery staff doing all follow-up with the OB checking the site the next day.

I don't believe in circ personally, but hey to each their own. I only had to see one botched circ where a child laid in the circumstraint bleeding for 30 minutes while they tried to find a needle small enough to stitch the little guy up. No thanks. My son was not circ'd.

[xxdiscoxxheaven]

One hospital I was at had THE RN do time out and Pct stay to assist. Hospital I work out now has a nursery or mother baby RN present for circ

[klone, MSN, RN]

Wherever I've worked, it's always been an RN

[BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN]

RN here too

[MunoRN, RN]

My kids have had them done at the doctor's office, no RN's work there, the assist was an MA for one and I think an LPN for the other. I see no compelling reason why it needs to be an RN.

[cayenne06, MSN, CNM]

My kids have had them done at the doctor's office, no RN's work there, the assist was an MA for one and I think an LPN for the other. I see no compelling reason why it needs to be an RN.

Well when there are no complications, a routine circ is pretty easy to assist with and I am sure an MA or PCT could handle it easily. But in the rare cases where a complication occurs, at the very least an RN needs to be immediately available to intervene, unless the provider remains readily available for the recovery period.

(Also not a fan of routine infant circumcision over here. But I do assist in it when I work as an RN)

[klone, MSN, RN]

(Also not a fan of routine infant circumcision over here. But I do assist in it when I work as an RN)

This, exactly.