Who does the prep in your OR?

suzanne4, RN · Apr 6, 2005

99% of the time it is the circulator. I did work at one facility where it was the responsibility of the resident, just so they learned how to do it properly.

Once in a while you will see the attending surgeon who does their own preps but very rarely.

grimmy, RN · Apr 6, 2005

i rarely do a prep except to speed things along. the residents or surgeon generally do the prep. this is done mostly because it is considered a learning experience for the residents and/or medical students. i have made a medical student's day by letting them prep! :) i certainly know how to do it because if the resident or attending is out scrubbing, i can instruct the medical student. of course, i work in a very large teaching or with over 30 or suites. certain attendings prefer to do their own prep, particularly the opthalmologists, i suspect because they manipulate the orbit while prepping.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Apr 6, 2005

The circulator, surgeon, or the resident.

mcmike55 · Apr 6, 2005

At my hospital, small rural Ohio, non-teaching, unless you count student nurses, 99.5% of the time, it's the circulator.

One of our eye docs has his office nurse help out, and she does his preps. This good with us, worked out years ago.

We have a new ortho guy who likes to pre-prep. Mostly on toes and hands. But this mostly consists of washing the extremity off with alcohol, and then going out to scrub, leaving us to clean up all this flamable alcohol!!!! :uhoh21:

One LPN, who is a scrub tech, and used to circulate in the "old days" did some preps at times. But he is semi-retired now.

Most of the docs wouldn't want to prep I don't think, they don't usually show up in the room until I call 'em.

Just as well, most of the time, I don't like them hovering over my shoulder! :chuckle

Mike

Charlie409 · Apr 13, 2005

Okay everyone, I have a question....
Who does the prep in your OR?
Where I work, the circulator does the prep 99% of the time. We have one surgeon who always does his own prep, plus every now and then the surgeon will do the prep to help speed things along (i.e if the nurse isn't doing it when they expect her to).
Having said that we've had two nurses join us, both from the NYC area (Bronx and Manhattan). In both of their former ORs, the circulator didn't do the prepping, the surgeon or resident did it. So, they come to us having totally forgotten how to prep. It's not a problem for us, I just found it interesting, for lack of better word.

Usually the surgeons... or the PA, the scrub will do it on occasion for a few of the regulars........circulators occasionally do scrub preps in ortho but that is about it, other than vag preps after we put a foley in for hysters

shodobe · Apr 13, 2005

Always the circulator wherever I have worked. Mike

stevierae · Apr 13, 2005

Always the circulator wherever I have worked. Mike

Same here. I want it done properly--it's the responsibility of the circulating nurse. If it's a trauma or, say, bilateral legs and groin need to be prepped, (say, for a take-back bleeding fem-pop, or aorto-bifem,) I sometimes ask a resident to prep one leg simultaneously while I am doing the other----but I make sure to watch him and let him know not to go from groin, to leg, back into groin---or squeeze contaminated sponges back into the clean prep solution.

Ali G. · May 5, 2005

95% of the time the circulating RN preps our patients. We also work very closely with our techs and they all are able to help prep bilateral limbs, etc. if needed