Economic Realities
By Rodney Jensen, SFA Program Director
 
Healthcare reform is a hot topic these days, especially in Washington, D.C., and it appears Congress is poised to address it in earnest in the very near future. Recognition by lawmakers and others that the American health care system is in crisis has sparked the debate in Washington. While there is broad agreement that there is a problem, how to fix the problem remains contentious; it is an issue that President Obama has pledged to address in the first year of his presidency.

With the current state of the economy and the current debate on healthcare reform, I believe it is an excellent time for the Surgical First Assistant to make themselves heard. It is time to let the Surgeons, OR Supervisors, and Hospital Administrators know where to best spend their money. It is not a difficult thing to show our worth in the OR and to point out the economic benefit of using a Surgical First Assistant.

Proper utilization is the key here. Why have non-OR-trained PAs or NPs in the OR when the Surgical First Assistant is trained specifically to assist the surgeon? Many PAs or NPs have little or no OR training. Most PAs have only done a 5-week rotation prior to graduation. Five weeks does not a scrub make, let alone a Surgical First Assistant! Their educational model is in other areas of patient care. PAs and NPs without specialized first assistant training can be much better utilized outside of the OR doing the other tasks that they were trained for, such as seeing patients on the floor or in the office, writing orders, etc. This type of work is much more in line with the salaries that they make and again, better utilization of resources.

In the case of surgeons assisting surgeons, it is much more beneficial for their practices and bottom line to have each surgeon doing their own case with a Surgical First Assistant helping each of them.

I think we all need to stay on top of how things are changing in the healthcare field and use our knowledge to point out these issues of more economically feasible utilization. If you have had success in promoting yourself as a Surgical First Assistant in the OR, please let us know. We would love to share your ideas with our readers so that we can all move our profession forward.

Student Profile

Name:  Melissa Burton

Credentials: CST, CFA

City & State:  Henderson, TX

Current Job: Self- employed surgical assistant doing business as Surgical Assisting of East Texas, Tyler, TX. Has privileges at four facilities; rotates primarily to two facilities.

Specialties:  Plastic-cosmetic, vascular, urological and general surgery

Reason for Taking the Course:  I first went through the NIFA training approximately five years ago, but now you are allowed to apply for a Texas state surgical license. With NIFA's program recently receiving CAA-HEP accreditation, I am taking the training again so I can graduate and then apply for the state license. It's been very useful for me, especially for procedures that I don't do regularly. For example, I haven't done orthopedic work in a few years. The training is a great review.

Next Steps: The next step for myself and for my business is bringing someone in to partner with me to cover the caseload. I will be sending that person through NIFA in the next couple of months. The need for help has become more apparent as we have some older physicians here who have been assisting but will be retiring. In recruiting, I looked for someone who is confident in what they do know and open-minded to learning what they don't know. Self-confidence in what they already know is very, very important, but open-mindedness means that they can accept constructive criticism well. As one physician told me, humility goes a long way in the faces of first assistants. After that, my next goal is to become more involved in the state political arena.  Now that I am comfortable in my credentialing and process, I'd like to become more comfortable with the political scene.

Words of Wisdom: Always shoot higher than you can accomplish. That way, when you shoot for the stars, you land on the top of the trees. 

SFA Tips

Indeed.com is a great site to know about if you're job hunting or exploring opportunities. It uses an approach it claims is "radically different" from other employment search engines to gather millions of job listings from thousands of websites - major job boards, newspapers, associations and company career pages. It's easy to drill down by keyword and location - even salary range - to match your specific criteria.

You can search without signing up, but if you set up a free account you can save your searches as a Job Alert email and receive daily or weekly emails containing links to new jobs matching your search criteria.  You may set up as many job alerts as you like and cancel them at any time.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this newsletter are strictly those of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of NIFA. NIFA does not give any express or implied warranty as to the accuracy of statements made by our contributors and does not accept any liability for error or omission. It is the responsibility of all OR personnel to work within and adhere to their facility bylaws and individual state scope of practice.    

The National Institute for First Assisting (NIFA) is the nation's leader of distance learning First Assistant programs. NIFA's new SA250 Surgical First Assistant program is CAAHEP accredited and prepares Surgical Assistants for the role of Certified First Assistant.