Focus on support staff in scrub role

It advises that when delegating the scrub role to a support worker, there should be compliance with the clinical governance frameworks and that the workers must demonstrate minimum knowledge and competence in line with the Perioperative Care Support and the Perioperative Care Surgical Support units of the National Occupational Standards Perioperative Care, and are assessed via National Qualification Frameworks.

Training programmes developed in isolation by individual organisations lack independent external scrutiny via authorised quality assurance processes.

Support workers fulfilling the scrubbed role must be working towards or have completed a National Occupational Standard Scrub Specific Unit at N/SVQ Level 3, having first completed the essential N/SVQ Level 3 units to secure the Perioperative Care Award.

When a support worker is fulfilling the scrub role all swab, instrument and needle counts must be conducted with a registered practitioner, who is a member of the scrub team, as a second checker; a registered practitioner should be present in the immediate environment for the duration of the operative procedure, as part of the scrub team; a registered practitioner must ensure that the patient care record and other documentation have been completed satisfactorily by the support worker. In addition, where the registered practitioner is a nurse registered with the NMC, all records completed by the support worker must be countersigned by the registered practitioner.

However, the PCC welcomes the development of the support worker in the scrub role as contributing to the versatility of the perioperative team, enhancing the role of the support worker and contributing to both patient and service needs within a clinical governance framework.