Who Else Will Be In The Operating Room?

In the operating room, an orthopaedic surgeon doing hip replacement will have one or two assistants at the operating table. The assistant may be another orthopaedic surgeon, a physician’s assistant (PA) or registered nurse first assistant (RNFA).

Both PAs and RNFAs are trained to work with surgeons in the operating room as first assistants.

A scrub nurse will also be in the sterile operating field with the surgeons. The scrub nurse may be a registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, or certified scrub technician.

The job of the scrub nurse is to pass the surgical tools and instruments to the surgeon and to keep track of all of the instruments and equipment within the sterile field. A circulating nurse, or circulator, is in the operating room but is not scrubbed in to the procedure.

The circulator retrieves and opens sterile equipment, takes care of the medical record, answers the phone, and does everything in the operating room necessary to move the case along.

In joint replacement cases, the circulator opens the packaging of the specific joint replacement components and passes them in a sterile manner to the scrub nurse.

In some operating rooms, a representative of the implant manufacturer may be present during joint replacement cases. He is not scrubbed and is not at the operating table. His purpose is to make sure that the right instruments for the implant are available and to make sure the proper components are opened.