Labor and Delivery nurses: can you scrub?

[perfexion, ASN, RN]

We were in a situation where a patient needed a cesarean and there was no scrub tech. We had to call a nurse in from home because she was the only one who could scrub. Do you scrub? Would you be able to scrub if you needed to? How did you learn to scrub? Was it a part of your orientation or did you take an outside class? I'm thinking about taking a peri op course to learn how to scrub. Does anyone know of a course?

[Calinurse4]

I was taught as part of my orientation. There are other nurses that love to do it and there are scrub techs, so I have only been used a few times. Which is fine by me, I'm not a fan of the OR!

[ReneeRN0521]

All of our nurses are trained to scrub when on orientation. We all know how to do it but I like the previous poster am not a fan of scrubbing. I do it when necessary but I would rather labor 2 mag/pit patients without epidurals than scrub. :)

[eager1hasbegun]

Where I worked, learning to scrub was part of the requirement for becoming a charge nurse. And at most hospitals I've worked at (I'm a traveler), charge RN could scrub or there was always a RN scheduled who could do it. That's a safety issue that should be addressed in your department! Unfortunately I started traveling before acquiring the skill, though as it's a skill that can be easily forgotten, I'm not sure how much use it would be to me now...

[cayenne06, MSN, CNM]

We don't scrub at my hospital- the OR team assists and we do "baby side." I wish we did scrub, though. There was an emergency c/s the other day and we could have saved precious time if one of our nurses could have scrubbed in.

[NurseNora, BSN, RN]

The first time I scrubbed, a patient came in with a prolapsed cord, we couldn't wait for the OR team to get there and my charge nurse pointed at me and said,"you, go scrub! Now!" It wasn't pretty, but healthy mom, healthy baby. I started pushing for us to learn to scrub and after a few years they did set up a program to teach L&D nurses to scrub. In other places, it was part of orientation. see if you can get approval to scrub in for sections at your place. You don'tneed to know how to do all types of surgery, just sections, so a peri op course may be over kill.

[k-t-did]

I have never been specially trained to scrub, but I can in a pinch. Honestly, all you need to really know is sterile technique, and how to count! In an emergency, the MD can point and tell you what they need. A patient physician can get you through any situation! That all being said, I am working on setting up training from the head of our surgery department to inservice all the L&D nurses can take a short class to learn the basics of scrubbing.

[Katie71275]

My first L&D job, we learned to scrub and I have scrubbed several times but not enough to be proficient at it. In an emergency, yes I could do it. Would everything be perfect? NO, but as long as mom and baby are OK that's all that really matters!