Kelly and John discuss John’s experience attending the Maddox Trauma Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery Conference and the Medical Disaster Response conference in Las Vegas, highlighting why these events are valuable for surgical assistants. John shares meeting Dr. Kenneth Maddox and keynote speaker Dr. Frank Butler, and explains how the conference offers cutting-edge trauma, acute care, and disaster-response education, panel Q&As, vendor innovations, and substantial CE opportunities. They cover practical logistics and cost-saving strategies such as early registration, requesting discounted rates, hotel deals, possible hospital reimbursement, and combining the trip with a vacation. John also notes key takeaways like ransomware preparedness, AI in the OR, ongoing debates such as REBOA, and recommends a reusable bowel suturing simulator from LifeLike BioTissue for at-home practice.

For Information on the Mattox Conference:

https://www.trauma-criticalcare.com/

For Lifelike 2 layer Bowel Simulated Tissue:

https://lifelikebiotissue.com/

John interviews co-host Kelly about her experience at the recent joint ASA/NSAA conference in Atlanta, which sold out with 173 attendees and over 200 including vendors. Kelly explains the typical conference flow, from Friday registration and optional pre-conference workshops to the State of the Association updates and keynote, followed by Saturday’s scientific sessions, vendor hall networking, and raffles. She shares highlights including a stapling technologies workshop with historical devices, standout vendor products like the SYLK incision dressing, and impactful talks on complex deformity correction, colorectal surgery, bariatric duodenal switch, wound closure principles, and neurosurgical considerations. Kelly notes strong professional energy, cross-mingling between organizations, progress toward unification under the American Academy of Surgical Assistants, and announces next year’s conference in Tampa, April 16–17, 2027.

In this episode of the Surgical Assistant Podcast, host John interviews Dr. Terry Herring, division chair for surgical services and director/founder of the Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC) Surgical First Assistant program, launched in 2019. Herring explains the program is entirely online with a paid, work-based learning clinical component where students count cases at their current employer under surgeon preceptorship. Admission requires candidates to be credentialed surgical technologists and already hold an associate degree. They discuss certification expectations, professional organization membership, and why SFA roles are growing as a cost-effective hospital model.

For Information of enrolling in FTCC's SFA program or program questions please contact Dr. Herring at:

herringt@faytechcc.edu