What does an RN First Assist do?

[singleumm]

I saw this in a job posting. Any body knows what they do?

[NAURN]

They assist the surgeon with surgeries. Its usually a masters degree program in order to be qualified to do this.

[queenjulie, RN]

I saw this in a job posting. Any body knows what they do?

They are surgical nurses who can do things like move retractors and finish up surgeries--they can actually stitch surgical wounds closed after the surgeon is finished with the procedure.

[SeeTheMoon]

Visit http://WWW.aorn.org. you can search for rnfa on their site, it gives a list of what all it entails.

I've never read that it requires a masters. From what I understand, any RN who is CNOR credited and has atleast 2-3 years in periop experience can go for RNFA.

[Crux1024]

Visit WWW.aorn.org. you can search for rnfa on their site, it gives a list of what all it entails.

I've never read that it requires a masters. From what I understand, any RN who is CNOR credited and has atleast 2-3 years in periop experience can go for RNFA.

Yes to the above. Also the program requires you to First Assist a certain number of cases, fully document and submit the paperwork, so working in the OR is a must during the program. It is not a masters program though.