Date Posted:11:21:13 10/31/09 Sat
The nurses and aides assigned to prep a patient do have to exercise their own judgement about the extent of the shave.
Some surgeons have very specific preferences so the prep must be done the way he/she wants it done. Other surgeons let the staff take care of it.
The staff wants to be sure the surgeon can do his/her job smoothly. There is nothing more embarrassing than to have a surgeon stand back and call for an OR nurse to finish the prep right then and there.
To make sure this does not happen, there is a tendency to sometimes prep a wider area than the patient might expect.
This results in patients believing that the nurse or aide shaved more of him than was really necessary. We see posts with that complaint on this board and others.
Why not let the nurses and aides do their jobs based on their own judgement and experience? The main concern of everyone involved is a suiccessful operation without infection of the site later. That's what the prep is for, so let them do what they think is best.
Date Posted:11:23:27 10/31/09 Sat
The Doctor did all my shaving when I was out and very little. I asked her in her office how much she needed shaved and she said don't worry I'll do it and only where I need to because the scraped skin can get infected.
