Best way to learn surgical equipment

[JeLi, BSN, RN]

Hello all. 5 year ortho RN here and I was lucky enough to be accepted into an OR training program. From what I can tell the program follows AORN Periop 101 and sets aside 1 day to follow SPD and 2 days to learn to scrub. I know myself and I know that’s not going to be enough for me to memorize and learn all the instruments. That said, I wanted to ask what is the best way to learn/ memorize all the different instruments? Do you guys recommend any texts or apps? Originally I was just going to make flash cards with the picture of the instrument on one side and the name, specialty, and usage on the other. 
 

Thanks in advance! 

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Honestly, the best way to learn them is to spend time with them. I would expect that if you are only getting 2 days of scrubbing that this would be a circulating nurse position, because that is nowhere near enough time to learn how to be a scrub nurse. I would clarify though, and ask about the expectations during orientation.

Other things you can do: ask for a copy of the instrument set list from sterile processing. It should list the name and how many of each instrument is in the set.

[ETA-RN, ADN, RN]

Thank you for posting this as I am waiting to begin a formal training program as well.

[RickyRescueRN, BSN, RN]

On 1/27/2022 at 9:27 PM, JeLi said:

Hello all. 5 year ortho RN here and I was lucky enough to be accepted into an OR training program. From what I can tell the program follows AORN Periop 101 and sets aside 1 day to follow SPD and 2 days to learn to scrub. I know myself and I know that’s not going to be enough for me to memorize and learn all the instruments. That said, I wanted to ask what is the best way to learn/ memorize all the different instruments? Do you guys recommend any texts or apps? Originally I was just going to make flash cards with the picture of the instrument on one side and the name, specialty, and usage on the other. 
 

Thanks in advance! 

There is absolutely no way you can learn to scrub anything in two days. They  (the program educators ) need to clarify that for you. An introduction to scrubbing in the periop 101 course could minimally be 2 weeks at the least. Then once the course is complete, you learn to scrub officially which could be anything from 6 months to a year.  Clarify with your managers whether your role will include scrubbing as a scrub RN , in which case you will need considerably more training in that role and for the specialty that you will be working in ( if your OR is broken up into specialty service lines). Best of luck in this great new adventure.