From the Editor
Have you noticed that many Nurse Practitioners are entering the perioperative arena as formal RNFAs lately? Many, such as Jim below, are current perioperative nurses who are getting their advanced practice titles to make themselves more flexible and marketable, while others, such as Mary Katherine, are new to the OR. In either case, with 76 million baby boomers entering the Medicare ranks by 2011, being an NP RNFA who can bill for Medicare services is a smart career move to consider.
Do YOU have a surgical article or personal experience to share? We welcome your submissions for consideration. Please send your ideas to [email protected].
Julie Lancaster, Editor
Credentials: RN, BSN, PHN,CNOR
City & State: San Francisco, CA
Current Job: OR, scrub and circulate / ISU at UCSF Medical Center
while attending Samuel Merritt University to become an NP
Previous Job: OR orthopedics, Level 1 Trauma – spine and cardiac, at UC Davis.
Quote about NP Future: As an advanced practice nurse, your patients are really your patients; you’re not following someone else’s possibly skewed view. There is a great deal of interpersonal communication and you learn how a patient’s physical condition affects their family, environment, and the rest of their life. In the future I would love to have my own clinic paired up with doctors. . . . I try to never be content. If you stop learning, it becomes work.
Credentials: MS, FNP-C
City & State: Corinth, TX
Current Job: Nurse Practitioner at Texas Back Institute
Previous Job: ER Nurse
Quote: I’ve always known since I was a kid that I wanted to work in the medical field – and because I really like to talk with people, I figured I would move into nursing. Then I wanted to do more than nursing. I like hands-on work and find the OR very satisfying. I have my own patients and also collaborate with the other staff at the clinic, seeing some of their patients. I’m taking the RNFA course because I can’t bill for my OR services in Texas without an RNFA.
Are you an NP, AD or Diploma RNFA graduate who can’t sit for the CRNFA national exam?
If so, the day may come when Risk Management requires you to be certified in the assisting role. What can you do? Qualified RNFA AD, diploma and NP graduates who cannot sit for the CRNFA exam because they do not hold a bachelors or do not have the required 2000 hours, can sit for the Registered Nurse Assistant at Surgery – Certified (RNAS-C™) exam.
NIFA note: If you do qualify for CRNFA, by all means sit for it! It is the most respected RNFA exam in the country. RNAS-C is only an alternative.