Scrub Nurse Practice An Ethical Viewpoint

Abstract

There is a growing trend within perioperative practice for nurses to undertake dual roles as both scrubbed nurse and surgeon's first assistant. In this article, Janet Wood suggests that nurses are allowing themselves to be pressured into attempting to carry out both roles simultaneously. She fears that this puts nurses at risk of failing to satisfy both their legal and moral duty of care to their patients, and advises how to deal with this situation.