Circulator AORN standards

[LandofMaybe, MSN, RN]

There are circulator that chart in the or during a procedure and those that don't.

The problem with charting during a case is you are taking your eyes and attention off the field.

If you chart during a procedure does the computer face the field?

Do you wait until after the case to chart?

 

What is your practice?

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Circulator positions computer so that they can face the field. Documentation is only done when the sterile team is situated, and will be stopped at any point if the team needs something/the patient needs something. Not documenting at all during the case has only been done in crazy situations like traumas/life and death emergencies, and I've been known to scribble times on my pants leg to document when the patient is stabilized. However, when possible documentation, as in other areas of nursing, should be done as close to real time as possible as long as it doesn't affect patient care. 

Remember that in the OR, the patient has an entire team taking care of them. Yes, the circulator needs to be attentive to the field, but there is a surgeon and a scrub person at minimum (usually more) who are part of the sterile field and also being attentive to needs. After all, on the floor, the nurse isn't constantly in all five patients' rooms monitoring without stop - there are times the circulator will need to leave the room (such as running specimens to lab/pathology, getting additional supplies that weren't anticipated because things change, etc.).