How many nurses do you know who are scrub nurses? I decided early on that I either become a scrub nurse or a midwife. Back in those days, theatre is easier to get into. Nobody ever resigns from labour ward & hence they never needed more staff. That was how I 1st became a scrub nurse. I left, went & did home nursing, clinic nursing, school nursing but in the end, I still came back to theatre. I hated working in the ward becoz I'm not a sociable person. The minimal contact with patient & relatives suits me just fine. Of course, the trade off means maximum contact with surgeons. The surgeon-nurse relationship is definitely more enjoyable here than in Sg. I can go on & on about the behaviours of Sg surgeons but I shall not deviate from the topic anymore.
1. We are somewhat, to varying degrees, obsessive compulsive about our trolley.
I like this instrument to be here & that instrument to be there. They're always in the same spot regardless how many times I have to prep my trolley. This is important becoz I know exactly where which instrument is & when you only have a split second to spare, you don't want to be scouring up & down the entire length of the trolley trying to find what the surgeon needs.
2. A common pet peeve among scrub nurses is when surgeons help themselves to the instruments/items when we're not available to pass it to them for whatever reason.
It could be becoz I turned my back to get something the scout nurse is passing me. I don't like it becoz you'll put it somewhere else & when you need it again, I can't find it. Or it could be becoz I just finished prepping the skin & I needed to set the cleansing set down. Don't help yourself to the drapes coz you'll open it up the wrong way anyway & we have to open a new 1 coz you've contaminated it. Just wait a few seconds. What you mess up will waste you more than that few seconds.
3. We have 1 secret pride.
Nothing gives me more pleasure than mastering the surgery. You may do something out of the ordinary & sway from your routine. But 1 look at what you're doing, I know exactly what instrument to pass you before you even say it. When there's a complication, I rattle off a list of instruments or consumables for the scout to open & they are exactly what you need sometime in the near future.
4. There will always be 1 surgery that we can't tolerate.
For some, maybe it's termination of pregnancy (we don't call it abortion) & subsequently naming the fetus, POC (product of conception) to send for histology. For some, maybe it's the laprotomy with half the guts being taken out & placed on top of the abdominal cavity or it is the smell when the surgeon finally finds the obstruction & proceeds to clear the bowels of its contents. (I was scouting once & the scrub nurse ran out halfway to throw up from the smell.) For me, it is when the hand surgeon yanks the nail off the nail bed in a crush injury, very common among construction workers. The patient is anesthetized & can't feel anything. I know that. But I would turn away every single time. It's like nails across a chalkboard for me. Gives me goosebumps & makes my hair stand.
5. There will always be 1 surgery that left a lasting impression.
I was on call. It was in the middle of the night. A patient was brought in from the ICU to have her organs harvested. She was what we call brain dead. Kept alive by mechanical ventilation. She was put under GA even though she was unconscious. The moment the liver & kidneys were taken out, the consultant just unscrubbed & left. The anaesthetist just turned off the machine & left. The MO was left behind to close up the now deceased patient. Finally, it was only me left. It was like she didn't matter. They just wanted to keep her heart beating so the organs continue to receive blood supply. The moment the organs were out, it was job done for them. I felt so sad. I cleaned her up as well as I could & said a prayer for her soul. Then I pushed her out, back to the ICU where her grieving relatives awaited to see her 1 last time. This was 11 years ago.
We're so removed from the rest of the hospital. We hardly ever step outside of the department & probably don't know our way around the hospital. I know for a fact I'm the worst person to ask for directions. When we get to the OT, we change into our scrubs & clogs. They don't ever leave the department. This is to ensure that we don't bring outside filth into the OT. Like everybody else, we have good days & we have bad days. Some days, nothing seem to go right. Other days, we sail right through on high. But I love the work I do. I know there's nothing else I want to do.
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