We support registration of Surgical Assistants in Virginia, however, to exclude one of the largest national certifying boards would be unjust and negatively impact the 6 Surgical Assisting programs approved by the ABSA and all of their past, present and future certificate holders.

Over the past 28 years, the ABSA has certified over 4,000 Surgical Assistants, awarding them the title of SA-C. The ABSA requires formal training and are the only certifying exam that requires a manual skills examination, in addition to the written exam. They do not accept on-the-job-trained applicants, but require a rigorous Surgical Assisting curriculum, including a clinical internship, unless the applicant was a foreign trained medical doctor with a minimum of two years primary or advanced surgical experience. The ABSA constantly strives to “raise the bar” for Surgical Assistants, as demonstrated by their requirement for a minimum of an Associate’s Degree beginning in 2016. The ABSA is a legitimate and valued Surgical Assisting certifying body.

Some (if not all) of the 6 ABSA approved programs have students and agreements with hospitals to train their future Surgical Assistants. We are working with a facility that desires to train all 17 of their surgical technologists in the surgical assistant role. If this regulation omits the ABSA Certifying Board, it will negatively impact Virginia’s hospitals, surgical centers, and past, present and future Surgical Assistants.

The National Surgical Assistant Association (NSAA) mentioned in the act is an “association”, not a certifying board, albeit is connected with the National Commission for Certification of Surgical Assistants certifying board. We believe the act should pass with the exchange of the NSAA for the American Board of Surgical Assistants (ABSA) certifying board.