The scrubbing process:
First, don the head gear (hat, mask etc).
Then, scrub from fingers down to an inch past the elbow.
The trick is then to rinse without contaminating the freshly scrubbed arms. If a finger, wrist or even arm hair touches the side of the sink, it is contaminated and the scrub needs to be started all over again! When rinsing, it is key to keep the hand above the level of the elbow (this is so that the contaminants and bacteria rinse off the elbow and not the fingers).
After the rinse, the hands have to remain above the elbows and away from the body while the nurse, scrub tech, assistant or whoever, help don the sterile gowns and gloves.
All in all, we had a lot of fun learning all these new procedures because it makes clinicals seem less than out of sight. Walking around AMC's OR really made us realize how far we have come in our didactic curriculum. We will be PA-C's before we even realize! =p