Paramedical Sciences and Military Health

Introduction: The clinical skills of surgical technologists, in the role of scrubs and circulars, play an essential role in the success of surgery; Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the clinical skills of orthopedic surgical technologists in the operating room of selected hospitals of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.
Methods and Materials: This study was conducted as a cross-sectional analysis. 26 surgical technologists working in the orthopedic operating room, who met the inclusion criteria, were selected and included in the study through convenient sampling method. Data collection tool was a researcher-made checklist of clinical skills that included 85 items with a 4-point Likert scale (50 questions related to the circular person and 35 questions related to the scrub person).
Results: The average age and work experience of the participants in this study were 29.38 ± 4.95 and 6.42 ± 5.72, respectively. Most of the participants were female (73.1%), most of them had a bachelor’s degree (92.3%) and they were in the workforce (50%). The average clinical skill scores of operating room technologists in the role of circular (in the range of 0-150) and scrub (in the range of 0-105) were 137.27 ±11.24 and 99.69 ± 5.06, respectively. Moreover, they were at the optimal level. The results showed that th average clinical skill scores are more in women than men; however, the t-test did not show a significant difference between the two groups (P=0.56). There is also a significant negative relationship between age and work experience with circular and scrub skills(P<0.001).
Discussion and Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the orthopedic surgical technologists of selected hospitals in Isfahan have optimal clinical skills in both circular and scrub roles. In addition, there is a significant correlation between factors such as age, gender, and work history and education level with the clinical skills of the personnel. Therefore, it is suggested to plan and implement specialized training courses by respected hospital officials to improve the clinical skills of orthopedic surgical technologists in both circular and scrub roles and achieve an ideal level of skills.