What's the easiest job in the operating room?

I think first assistant is the easiest. All they do is hold retractors and then suture skin.

No offense Shari, but have you circulated? OVERALL, circulating is a lot harder than first assisting or scrubbing. Yes, there are tough cases to scrub, but OVERALL, circulating is the hardest. I look forward to the days that I get to scrub all day. Scrubbing is usually fun. There is so much less responsibility, which is precisely why an RN degree in not required. Most techs have no idea how hard is circulating, despite the fact that they watch circulators in action everyday. I've seen excellent scrub techs become nurses and they are unpleasantly surprised how difficult is circulating. The point is that until you do all three... circulating, scrubbing, and first assisting, you cannot accurately judge which job is the toughest.

As for RNFA training, the course is usually just a few days long, followed by logging hours first-assisting in their hometown hospital. So their training is very little more than that of a circulator.

You're a tech, so you have first-assisted often, and when you do so, you are being the scrub tech at the same time. Now imagine doing only the first assisting part. Unless the patient is crashing or bleeding out, it is an easy job.

I work with an RNFA with 20 years experience. I asked her why she became an RNFA. She told me that she "just wanted to do what was easiest." You may not like her answer, but she was just being honest.

Yes, I realize that it is politically incorrect to say that some jobs are harder than others, but to say that all jobs are OVERALL EXACTLY equal in difficulty is inaccurate.

Tell me what F.A.'s do besides retract, suction, cut, saw, drill, and suture?

I appreciate your friendliness, but please be aware that second-circulating as a tech is not an accurate taste of circulating. You were not allowed to the things that only RN's do, and you always had another circulator to fall back on. You will never know what circulating really feels like unless you get an RN degree and circulate solo. Just like I will never know how hard it is to be a physician.

I admit that this thread was a bad idea of mine. I wanted to get opinions but I did not anticipate it turning into a politically-correct discussion.