Surgical Assistants — Tasks

Task statements

• Monitor and maintain aseptic technique throughout procedures.
• Maintain an unobstructed operative field, using surgical retractors, sponges, or suctioning and irrigating equipment.
• Pass instruments or supplies to surgeon during procedure.
• Assist with patient resuscitation during cardiac arrest or other life-threatening events.
• Verify the identity of patient or operative site.
• Obtain or inspect sterile or non-sterile surgical equipment, instruments, or supplies.
• Assist members of surgical team with gowning or gloving.
• Cover patients with surgical drapes to create and maintain a sterile operative field.
• Coordinate or participate in the positioning of patients, using body stabilizing equipment or protective padding to provide appropriate exposure for the procedure or to protect against nerve damage or circulation impairment.
• Determine availability of necessary equipment or supplies for operative procedures.
• Gather, arrange, or assemble instruments or supplies.
• Operate sterilizing devices.
• Clamp, ligate, or cauterize blood vessels to control bleeding during surgical entry, using hemostatic clamps, suture ligatures, or electrocautery equipment.
• Prepare and apply sterile wound dressings.
• Assess skin integrity or other body conditions upon completion of the procedure to determine if damage has occurred from body positioning.
• Apply sutures, staples, clips, or other materials to close skin, facia, or subcutaneous wound layers.
• Assist in the insertion, positioning, or suturing of closed-wound drainage systems.
• Adjust and maintain operating room temperature, humidity, or lighting, according to surgeon's specifications.
• Assist in applying casts, splints, braces, or similar devices.
• Remove patient hair or disinfect incision sites to prepare patient for surgery.
• Monitor patient intra-operative status, including patient position, vital signs, or volume and color of blood.
• Discuss with surgeon the nature of the surgical procedure, including operative consent, methods of operative exposure, diagnostic or laboratory data, or patient-advanced directives or other needs.
• Coordinate with anesthesia personnel to maintain patient temperature.
• Incise tissue layers in lower extremities to harvest veins.
• Postoperatively inject a subcutaneous local anesthetic agent to reduce pain.
• Insert or remove urinary bladder catheters.
• Assist in volume replacement or autotransfusion techniques.
• Transport patients to operating room.