Reflective Report: Surgical First Assistant

The aim of this assignment is to present an evaluative report that looks into two clinical skills, which I have learned within Surgical First Assistant (SFA) module. The report incorporates my expectations as an SFA, standard practices, issues of accountability, responsibility and role limitations across professional boundaries of advanced surgical practice and will establish my understandings in relation to the specific learning outcomes of this course module, along with a critical appraisal of my performance and role fulfillment.
The two skills I chose for this report are patient positioning and assisting with haemostasis. I will adopt a reflective model to evaluate the learning process and how I attained competence in both areas.
Reflection
Reflection-in-action it is the way that people think and theorize about practice and occurs when they are involved in that practice. This can be seen as an instinctive activity that develops subconsciously in our daily routine. Reflection-on-action concerns the intentionally exploring of an event or experience and thinking about the practice at a later time, after it has occurred, identifying the knowledge that has been used in that situation. Reflection-on-action is a cognitive process that transfers our experience into knowledge and identifies any inconsistency in our knowledge or practice (Jasper, 2013).
I have chosen to present my reflective report using Driscoll’s model (2007) of reflection because it is a developmental model that includes all the core skills of reflection: description, self-awareness, critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis; it consists in three stages in reflecting on one’s practice: ‘what?’ ‘so what?’ ‘now what?’. These trigger questions give a broad and substantial reflective process by challenging a more in depth examination, resulting in an action plan for the future (Bulman & Schutz,
Before I engaged in this course I was working in a dual role of scrub practitioner and surgical assistant, without knowing the boundaries between these two roles, or the legal and ethical implications of this practice (Dimond, 2011). That time I was carrying out roles such as positioning, prepping, draping, retracting tissues, cutting sutures and applying dressings because I considered them mandatory skills and standard practice for any scrub practitioner (Sutton, 2003). While I was progressing through the module I came to the conclusion that carrying out a dual role can lead to failure by neither one to be performed effectively, generating an increased risk of incidents that can occur as well as the potential for litigation (Sutton,