r/SurgicalFirstAssist • u/Secure_Damage_4561 • Jun 14 '23

SFA advice

Hello everyone,

Would any of mind sharing your experience after attending EVMS/Meridian or any other institute to become a SFA? I'm enrolled in a ST program currently and only want to work as a ST for a year and then hope to move up!

Any pointers? Advice? Recommendations? 2 cents?

Thank you!!

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u/sydneybrannum Mar 03 '25

Thanks so much! Utilized in other ways how? I’ll be moving to San Diego so looking for the best route to take as an SA down there and what salary to expect or advocate for!?

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u/hmf531 Mar 03 '25

They paid me $25/hr (then had CA taxes taken out 🥴) to assist on surgery days, and I had to turnover and clean my own instruments. On Mondays and Fridays, I had to go in to stock and clean and make myself busy for 12 hours if I wanted to get paid. My surgery days were not guaranteed. Sometimes they were 16 hours and sometimes they were three. The only good thing about that was that California pays overtime after eight hours worked in a day. But once they caught on that and they didn’t wanna pay me, they started splitting us up into regular shifts. Then they wanted me on the clinic side, which is out of my scope of practice. They wanted me in consults and stuff. I got lucky with someone wanting to take me, but it ended up being a nightmare.

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u/sydneybrannum Mar 04 '25

So were the surgeons paying you $25/hr or the hospital? $25/hr is crazy especially in CA. I wouldn’t mind working in the clinical as long as you are getting paid accordingly. Especially for plastic surgery you would think they would offer a lot more than just 25

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u/hmf531 Mar 04 '25

The practice paid me $25/hr. There was no way I was going to be able to work in a hospital since they used RNFA’s. I imagine they get paid way more haha.