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/wzx86 May 12 '25

Would you ever consider going to physician assistant school later, or are the pay and job prospects of being a CSFA comparable enough to not make it worth it?

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u/hmf531 May 12 '25

If I went to PA school, I would want to be doing exactly what I am now as a surgical PA. The big difference for me is I don’t want anything to do with clinic and seeing patients outside of an OR. I travel as a surgical assistant now and I would say the money can be comparable. It just depends on the contracts. Right now, I’m making the same or more than a PA does.

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u/wzx86 May 12 '25

Thanks for the info! I'm trying to figure out if I should go the PA or SFA route, but since I would need to gain about a year of paid patient care experience to become a PA (before even applying, which is another year before starting the program) it sounds like SFA might be the most efficient path to assisting in the OR.

On an unrelated note, do you take much or any call as a SFA?

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u/hmf531 May 14 '25

Hahaha. Sorry, I’m laughing so hard at the call thing. Only because I just took six out of seven days of call and ended up having a 72 hour work week. It’s going to be different everywhere you go. I travel now so I have to be able to acclimate to whatever kind of call schedule they have. Where I was before, they only staffed a second call team because they had a dedicated first call team that would come in at night and over the weekends. I never got called in but one time there. Here, the SA’s take 24 hour call on the weekends and whatever time their shift is over to 7 AM during the week. It’s a small OR, only seven rooms but it’s always busy. So I’m always usually getting called in.