“The nurse who assisted the surgeon was referred to as the scrubbed (or scrub) nurse, suture, nurse, instrument nurse, sterile glove nurse, or sponge nurse, among other name. Surgeons initially insisted that the scrub nurse be the most senior nurse, but eventually there was agreement by nurses that the unsterile or circulating nurse should be the most senior nurse.”

Cited in Comprehensive Perioperative Nursing
by Gruendemann and Fernsebner