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Life as they see it. Members of NATN write on issues that concern or interest them.
Working in theatres, I have become aware of a perception that nurses who rarely scrub for cases are 'lazy' or 'skiving', while nurses who scrub for practically every case are 'really hard working'. Is this right or have we got our priorities wrong? Which is more important for theatre nurses, scrubbing or circulating?
A couple of incidents have made me think about this. The first involved a seemingly simple question asked by a British theatre nurse at the World Conference of Surgical Patient Care in Finland in 1999.
International differences
At this conference, there was a 'questions from the audience' session with answers provided by a panel of experts from around the world. One of my colleagues stood up and asked, 'What training do theatre nurses in other countries give to healthcare assistants?'
Now, this seemed like a straightforward question to me, but it was met with a wall of uncomprehending silence. My colleague then elaborated with a hasty explanation of 'healthcare assistants'...