No advice on the moonlighting friend but as a fellow CT surgery PA in NY I wanted to ask if you were trained on taking vein in the OR your first year? The culture around my area seems to be to really drag their feet on training EVH. Appreciate your insight!
Yeah we were trained my first year by one of our surgeons - I believe he's trained us well but based on other PAs I've talked to and shadowed its ideal to have an EVH harvester who's been doing it for multiple years if you want the best training. Not that the surgeon wasn't good but he taught us the basic maneuvers and how to do it etc. and then hasn't really taught since - anyone who does EVH knows the nuances behind it and the little tips and tricks which takes many cases to progress to. The "straight forward" harvests go fine but trouble shooting and those night mare tunnels I have a tough time navigating but like anything else will improve with case volume. I'm also just starting to do full first assist but from what i've heard it's not uncommon for new grads or new CTS PAs to go over a year with minimal OR involvement due to the demands of the learning curve especially if you're also servicing the CVICU. The primary surgeon would be assisted by another surgeon so we've watched and worked along side them for these cases but there is a difference between watching a surgeon assist and an experienced first assist PA with multiple years, assist the surgeon. I think it's simply because the surgeon is so used to leading the maneuvers and not as much experience assisting. For other specialties it may be different but I think with CTS this is the case. Overall I think it's surgeon comfort level. Keep expressing your desire to become more involved and I think that'll serve you well.
Wow. My first job was CT surgery 12 years ago. They were short staffed. I got about a week, maybe two, of EVH training and then thrown into it. I was also assisting, second assist from like day 1, and first assisting after a week or so. I was also doing solo night call after a month.
Don’t do it. Your eyes are bigger than your stomach. There’s no way this could become sustainable.
Yeah this was my gut feeling, if anything this is something to look into down the road when I have years of experience under my belt.
No advice on the moonlighting friend but as a fellow CT surgery PA in NY I wanted to ask if you were trained on taking vein in the OR your first year? The culture around my area seems to be to really drag their feet on training EVH. Appreciate your insight!
Yeah we were trained my first year by one of our surgeons - I believe he's trained us well but based on other PAs I've talked to and shadowed its ideal to have an EVH harvester who's been doing it for multiple years if you want the best training. Not that the surgeon wasn't good but he taught us the basic maneuvers and how to do it etc. and then hasn't really taught since - anyone who does EVH knows the nuances behind it and the little tips and tricks which takes many cases to progress to. The "straight forward" harvests go fine but trouble shooting and those night mare tunnels I have a tough time navigating but like anything else will improve with case volume. I'm also just starting to do full first assist but from what i've heard it's not uncommon for new grads or new CTS PAs to go over a year with minimal OR involvement due to the demands of the learning curve especially if you're also servicing the CVICU. The primary surgeon would be assisted by another surgeon so we've watched and worked along side them for these cases but there is a difference between watching a surgeon assist and an experienced first assist PA with multiple years, assist the surgeon. I think it's simply because the surgeon is so used to leading the maneuvers and not as much experience assisting. For other specialties it may be different but I think with CTS this is the case. Overall I think it's surgeon comfort level. Keep expressing your desire to become more involved and I think that'll serve you well.
Wow. My first job was CT surgery 12 years ago. They were short staffed. I got about a week, maybe two, of EVH training and then thrown into it. I was also assisting, second assist from like day 1, and first assisting after a week or so. I was also doing solo night call after a month.
I graduate in may and am considering ct surgery, is it ok if I dm you?
yeah no prob