ORJUNKIE

I think that there has not been a good job in the education of what CRNFA really means. This is a big bone of contention where I work because a few people attended a TWO week course (and they really think they are qualified to be consultant assistants like an MD has been - get real!)and now think they should only have to scrub in as an assistant. Most doctors don't end up letting them do anything more than what we've always done as second scrubs! Why should we support an already burdened healthcare cost system and charge patients for services that truly aren't necessary? Come on folks, be honest with yourselves! This is another example of delusions of grandeur. The same people who insisted twenty years ago that you wouldn't be a good nurse unless you had a BSN or MSN, thus causing the demise of many a good ADN and Diploma program, are probably the same people who made up this nonsense about attending a two week course and then considering yourself qualified to work as a CRNFA! All of us who have worked with new BSN/MSN grads know that the ADN and Diploma nurses are generally better able to care for patients straight out of school.

At the risk of insulting many good CSTs, in 22 years of OR nursing, I've yet to find one who remotely had the amount of education equivalent to that of an RN. The scrub nurse role is primarily technical in nature and many an RN cannot do it well. However, the circulating role relies on an overall knowledge base that I would challenge a CST curriculum with showing proof of as a requirement. Any credentialing (ie., JCAHO) surveys I've gone through have always included the specific question regarding whether or not CSTs or RNs are circulators. While CSTs can circulate a room, they still MUST be under the direction of an RN and this RN should be readily able to respond to emergency. Someone tell me how that can be safely done if one RN is supervising several rooms and more than one room has an emergency. As for me or my family, give me an RN anyday. And while we are at it, I also want a second physician to serve as the assistant in surgery and not someone who has attended a two week first assist course somewhere and now has delusions of granduer that they are capable of troubleshooting and consulting during surgical cases. MEOW... I'm on a role...