Want scrub experience

[travel nurse2009]

I am a retired nurse of 25yrs., have 16 yrs ICU experience, 5yrs general OR experience. The scrub skills I have I learned from observation. I found it very hard to get scrub experience where I retired from as they didn't have enought RN's to let me. Even when I did get to I had to learn by the seat of my pants. I currently am traveling, love my assignment at present but I still want to scrub. How do I go about getting the experience? Same problem this time, not enough RN's however they are slowing down at present because they are introducing a new computer charting system. What would be a good way to try to be able to scrub;? I have already asked some of the experienced scrubs if I could second with them and they are agreeable to this.Would appreciate any advice.:)

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

When there are enough staff members at the beginning of the day, ask to be paired with someone in a general case to scrub. If cases start to dwindle at the end of the day and there are a lot of nurses free, you can ask to be paired with someone because at that point you are not needed to staff a room.

Unfortunately since you are a traveler, the hospital will not go out of their way to teach you to scrub. You have to look for every opportunity. I traveled also, and what I described above is how I got to learn. I made friends with the charge nurse, and she knew that I wanted to scrub as much as possible, so she would let me pair up with someone when I was not needed to staff a room. Of course if an emergency came through or someone on staff needed/wanted to leave early, I had to scrub out.

I encourage you to keep your eyes peeled for any opportunity to scrub. It is so much fun that I would do it for free! (I hope my boss is not reading this.) You learn so much and gain a well rounded view of surgery and procedures. Keep trying!