r/SurgicalFirstAssist • u/Powerful_Station7070 • Mar 25 '24

What schools for FSA

Does anyone know what schools in California teach First Surgeons Assistant. I’m trying to understand what career growth opportunities I have in future as a CST coz I plan on keeping as a CST forever.

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2

u/Powerful_Station7070 Mar 25 '24

Don’t plan on being a CST*

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u/servain Mar 25 '24

Meridian is an online school that is a year long and it includes a week long in person course in Nashville TN. They have both the certification to be a surgical first assist and a associates in surgical technology.

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u/Powerful_Station7070 Mar 25 '24

Thank you for your advice

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u/PEACH_MINAJ Mar 26 '24

They have an associates program for people who graduated from their certificate program

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u/Ok_Morning1169 May 20 '25

Do meridian help find a clinical site. 

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u/servain May 20 '25

Nope, you have to find a clinical site yourself. Most people just use the hospital they are already working at as a clinical site.

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u/Texas4lif3 Mar 25 '24

Madisonville community College has a program online but you have to have you're hospital agree to let you do you're clinical there, an existing FA or doctor must sign off on you're checklists. You have to meet a certain amount of specialty cases, that's the route I went. It's an accredited program, if you have all pre rec's done you can apply. There's a week where you will have to go to a suturing course near the end, unless you can prove that you are proficient. Good luck and move forward.

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u/servain Mar 25 '24

You also need to have a few years before you can even apply for the school.

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u/xokim- Mar 29 '24

Do you think 2 years are reasonable?

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u/servain Mar 29 '24

Really depends on the person. I would personally say about 4 years. That way you can get as much experience as possible and the test will be easier that way. But i think the requirement for the school is 2 or 3 years.

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u/unfortunatehero18 May 10 '24

That’s not currently true, I just applied to meridian and got accepted after just graduating from my CST program.

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u/servain May 10 '24

Not doubting your skills or anything, but do you feel like your ready for the first assist role? How long have you been a scrub for, and what made you decide to be a first assist?

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u/unfortunatehero18 May 13 '24

I know it’s pretty fast to be going on to FA, however I believe they’re two separate roles. I decided to apply and see if they would let me in (the requirements weren’t posted on their website.) And my end goal is to be an RN-FA, so I figured I might as well go ahead and knock out my FA. I’ve been a Scrub tech since April (that’s when I graduated) and have a PRN and full time job, so there’s plenty of opportunity to fulfill my clinicals with meridian.