The needs of medical assistant during brain surgery

I‘ve attended several brain surgeries in my previous employment. During that, I learned a lot. Usually there will be one senior neurosurgeon who’s in charge of the surgery, then he’ll be accompanied by junior neurosurgeon as his assistant. Then comes several medical assistants. They are there to support the surgeons and make sure everything comes to place. In the sterile area there will be around 4 people, including senior and junior neurosurgeons.

Some medical assistant will take care of anesthesia, some will take care of big equipments, some handles and cleans the surgical instruments. It’s complicated and need special skills.

I asked them how they got the skill. They said, after finished medical assistant schools and got hired, there are specialization, which surgery field that they will work on. Then the hospital will send them for training and attend workshops.

In medium size hospitals in remote area in Indonesia, usually there is only one neurosurgeon, there is no other surgeon to help him. The medical assistants play important role. They prepare the patient before surgery, and they stitch the wounds after neurosurgeon finishes his part. The neurosurgeon relies on them.