The surgical first assistant: are you compliant?

It is over a century now since the importance of the knowledge and skills of the surgeon's assistant were first considered (Brickner 1907). More recently both the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCSE 1999, 2011) and the Perioperative Care Collaborative (PCC 2007) have reviewed the role of the non-medically qualified surgical assistant. In 2012, the PCC published their review of the surgical first assistant (SFA) role in response to a call by the RCSE for greater clarity in relation to the plethora of titles afforded to non-medical surgical assistants (RCSE 2011).