Circulating Nurse

Circulating Nurse:

•  Responsible for creating a safe environment
•  Managing the activities outside the sterile field.
•  Documenting intraoperative nursing. Ensuring surgical specimens are identified and place in the right media.
•  Arranges sterile and non sterile supplies
•  Positions client on operating room table.
•  Prepares operating room with necessary equipment & supplies.  Accompanies client to the recovery room

• Assisting with surgical procedures involves performing various tasks to facilitate the surgery and ensure patient safety.
• They include preparing the surgical site by cleansing and draping it with sterile sheets, handing instruments and supplies to the surgeon as requested, applying suction or irrigation to the surgical site as needed, applying dressings or drains to the wound as instructed, providing hemostasis by applying pressure or clamps to bleeding vessels or using electrocautery devices and suturing or stapling the wound edges as directed.
• Counting instruments and sponges is done to prevent foreign body retention in the patient.
• It involves counting all instruments and sponges before and after surgery and comparing the numbers with the records.
• The nurse should report any discrepancy to the surgeon and initiate a search for the missing item.
• If the item is not found, an x-ray may be ordered to locate it.
• Documenting events is done to provide a legal record of the surgery and its outcomes.
• It involves recording all relevant information about the patient, surgery, anesthesia, nursing care and interventions, complications and incidents in the operative record or report.
• The nurse should use clear, concise, accurate and objective language, follow the chronological order of events and include any deviations from the standard of care.
• Transfer to the PACU is done when the surgery is completed and the patient is stable.
• The nurse should verify the patient’s identity using two identifiers (such as name and date of birth), check the surgical site dressing for bleeding or drainage, ensure that the airway is patent and oxygen is administered as ordered, secure any tubes or drains, cover the patient with a warm blanket to prevent hypothermia, transport the patient on a stretcher or bed to the PACU, and report any pertinent information to the PACU nurse.