NIFA is the only RN First Assistant Program (RNFA) in the United States that focuses on hands-on, surgical-lab skills training. Along with an entire workshop of performing multiple cases cut to close, you can literally practice advanced suturing techniques up to 30 times more than other programs' offerings.

Since 1997, NIFA has made this guarantee: In less than a year, you'll master the confidence and skills of the nation's top RNFAs or we will retrain you free of charge. In the end, you will find yourself relying on these advanced skills over and over again, on thousands of patients, for the rest of your career.

as the only AORN Educational Corporate Partner, the National Institute of First Assisting (NIFA) is now the nation's largest RNFA Program. Students also choose this program because we have designed an easy to follow, step by step, online curriculum that can be accessed 24-hours, seven-days-per-week; offered you a choice of a 3 Day SutureStarXpress or 6 day SutureStar Workshop; and only require an internship of 120 hours. Lastly, NIFA's 'RNFA Certificate of Completion' is recognized by all 50 state boards of nursing (including for NP graduates).

AD, Diploma, BSN, MSN, L & D, FNP, ACNP, ANP, PNP, ARNP, CNS, CNM, WHNP and CRNA nurses meeting all of the prerequisites qualify for this program. Regardless of your educational track, perioperative nurses and nurse practitioners in the expanded role of RN First Assistant need as much hands-on skills training as possible to perform competently in this vital role.

you have the choice to attend a 6 Day SutureStar™ Workshop with up to 30 times more suturing (required for new NPs without OR experience), or an abbreviated, 3 Day SutureStarXpress™ Workshop featuring up to 15 times more suturing. (Ask about our Total Distance Learning (TDL) program for nurses with over 5 years experience.) Depending on your previous experience and your training choice, all of our offerings can quickly take you to expert levels in basic to advanced RNFA techniques. Read our testimonials, then enroll! (New England Journal of Medicine Survey promoting NIFA's style of simulated hands-on training).

when you enter your clinical internship, you don't want your surgeon preceptor to regret having said 'yes' to mentoring you as an RNFA intern due to inadequate training. Get it right the first time. Enroll in the nation's largest RNFA Program and become a formal first assistant by winter of 2012!

Great News! The brand new 2011 AORN Salary Survey reported that:

“RNFAs received the largest compensation relative to base pay… The employees most likely to receive a hiring bonus are... RNFAs... Notably, the pay raise percentages have declined in 2009 and in 2010 for every job title category except RNFA..."

Let a NIFA graduate elaborate:"Being employed as a hospital-based RNFA...My annual salary has increased approximately $20,000 while my hours worked have decreased..."  Debbie B. RNFA Graduate