Many surgical procedures, both major and minor, take place in the operating rooms daily. Hence, to avoid bacterial infection, it is paramount that the operating room be as aseptic as possible, and that all surgical tools be disinfected and sterilized. Thus, in order to maintain these high standards of hygiene, nurses in the operating room are divided into two groups: circulating and scrub nurses.

Scrub nurses are those who assist the surgeon during the operation. Not only do they need to wear sterile protective clothing and gloves, they also need to be very familiar with the different surgical procedures. Furthermore, as surgical instruments are only accessible to scrub nurses, they need to remember the name of every surgical tool, even though some of them may look quite similar! Moreover, they will need to check the number of surgical instruments after operations to ensure that none of them is left in the patient’s body. All in all, scrub nurses have an incredibly meaningful role in saving lives.
 

手術室每日需要進行大大小小的手術，是個非常注重衛生的地方。要確保手術室能夠盡量處於無菌狀態，避免病人受細菌感染，任何手術工具都需經過消毒及不可任意碰觸，因此手術室護士亦分為擦手護士(scrub nurse)和流動護士(circulating nurse)。

擦手護士會穿上無菌保護衣和無菌手套，在手術台上輔助醫生動手術，手術工具亦只有擦手護士才可以接觸，他們需要牢記所有手術工具的名字，亦要能夠分辨非常近似的器具外型兼熟悉手術流程，準備好手術所需器具，隨時為醫生遞刀遞叉。完成手術後，核對手術工具數量，確保沒有器具遺留在病人體內，責任重大。