Assisting Like a Pro-Part 1

Unlock the GOOD GREAT ASSIST Mindset

Average Assistant vs a Great One

If you master the art of being seamlessly effective, you’ll be the kind of surgical assistant every surgeon wants by their side. The GOOD ASSIST Mindset is your framework for getting there. But it’s more than that. It’s a philosophy that separates average surgical assistants from true professionals. Let’s dive into Part I:

Get It Practice

Observe

Out of the Way

Don’t Move

“Get It Practice” – The Right Kind of Practice

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Practice makes perfect.” But that’s not entirely true. Mindless repetition won’t get you there. Perfect practice makes perfect.

One of the biggest challenges in developing surgical skills is lack of sufficient practice before using the skill on a patient. Your goal should be to practice enough to build muscle memory. Muscle memory makes the skill part of you. When you need it, you don’t have to think about it, you just do it by second nature.

Another challenge holding you back from being the best is using the wrong hand. The best assistants are ambidextrous. If you ever see someone struggling with a tying technique, just using the other hand very often breaks through the struggle barrier. All the sudden, they are performing smoothly, exuding confidence, and presenting the appearance of an expert. When working on your Get It Practice, don’t neglect developing muscle memory in your less dominant hand.

To Get It For Real:

Hands-On Training – Online surgical assisting schools should include simulations that let you feel the movements, not just know them. The ACE surgical skills lab is where you learn to get it right.

Deliberate Practice – Break down skills into small, precise movements and repeat them correctly every time. Do this enough and you’ll build muscle memory.

Ambidextrous – Don’t neglect your less dominant hand. Build muscle memory there too.

“Observe” – Listen To What Your Eyes Are Telling You

You wouldn’t try to drive a car without ever watching someone else do it first, right? The same goes for surgery.

Whether you are new to surgery or moving into a specialty that’s new to you, observation is critical because it allows you to pick up nuances not found in textbooks. Watching experienced surgical assistants helps you see how they anticipate the surgeon’s needs, making procedures flow seamlessly.

Observation also helps develop pattern recognition, allowing you to predict what’s coming next before it happens. This ability to foresee and respond proactively is what separates a good surgical assistant from a great one.

How to Observe Like a Pro:

Shadow Before You Assist – If possible, watch a case before assisting. Seeing it at least once gives you a roadmap to refer to when it’s your turn.

Train Your Focus – Don’t just watch the surgeon. Pay attention to the assistant. How do they position themselves? How do they move?

Compare to a Reference Point – Your training and prior experiences serve as crucial reference points. They allow you to recognize patterns, identify key similarities, and highlight differences in each new situation. This mental comparison helps solidify your knowledge, making it easier to adapt and perform effectively in this new circumstance.

“Out of the Way” – The Best Compliment You’ll Ever Get

Early in my assisting career, a surgeon said to me, “You know what I like about you, Dan?” For those of you who know me, know that my mind went into a whirl. I was thinking the next words coming out of the surgeon’s mouth were going to be, “you have better skills than most surgeons I’ve ever worked with!”

Nope… Instead, he said, “You stay out of my way.”

At first, I wasn’t sure if that was even a compliment… But it turns out, it was one of the highest forms of praise an assistant can get. Because staying out of the way doesn’t mean just standing there – out of the way – but doing nothing more. It means doing everything but without disrupting the flow of surgery. You and the surgeon work harmoniously and simultaneously together.

How to Master Staying “Out of the Way”:

Stay in Your Own Zone – Think of zones as areas of focus called the Inner Circle and Outer Circle. The inner circle is the surgeon’s area of focus. If you stay in the outer circle, you can get your job done and handle all the other things that the surgeon would otherwise be distracted by. You not only stay out of the way, but you also help surgeons to focus on their work – you help surgeons to be the best versions of themselves.

Preop Study – Part of your case prep is to learn the steps of the procedure at the same level as your surgeon knows them. This gives you an awareness of where the surgeon is going to be at any point in the procedure. Then you can arrange to stay out of the way. You won’t have to scramble at the last minute.

Surgical Simulations – Training in realistic surgery simulations (like in the ACE Surgical Assistant Program) helps you develop the skill of simultaneous teamwork – assisting but never obstructing the surgeon’s work.

“Don’t Move” – Hand Ballet

This doesn’t mean standing there like a statue either. It means to eliminate extra wasted movements. Have you ever heard surgery referred to as hand ballet? One thing making ballet so beautiful is “efficiency of motion.” The same is true of surgery. At our skills lab, we work extensively on efficiency of motion.

Wasted moves comes in two forms: 1) A flurry of activity is more distracting than helpful. And 2) introducing extra moves into the technique itself. Mastering the ability to move with purpose and precision is key to becoming an exceptional surgical assistant.

The Fix:

Develop Judgment – Instead of doing 12 things to be helpful, ask yourself: “What’s the one or two things I can do to make this surgery smoother?”

Refine Your Technique – Every extra movement adds time to the case. Learning streamlined techniques like we teach at ACE gives you confidence and makes you look like an expert.