Clinical Case Requirements

Clinical case requirements are defined by the Association of Surgical Technologists in the Core Curriculum for Surgical Technology, 6th edition, and are as follows:

  • Students must complete a minimum of 120 cases.
    • A minimum of 20 of these cases must be performed in the First Scrub (FS) role. 
    • The remaining 10 cases may be performed in either the FS or Second Scrub (SS) role.
  • Students are required to complete a minimum of 90 cases in various surgical specialties, excluding General Surgery. 
    • A minimum of 60 cases must be performed in the FS role and distributed amongst a minimum of four surgical specialties.
      • A minimum of 10 cases in four different specialties must be completed in the FS role (40 cases total). 
      • The additional 20 cases in the FS role may be distributed amongst any one surgical specialty or multiple surgical specialties.
    • The remaining 30 cases may be performed in any surgical specialty in either the FS or SS role.  
  • Surgical specialties, excluding General Surgery, include the following:
    • Cardiothoracic
    • Genitourinary
    • Neurologic
    • Obstetric and gynecologic
    • Ophthalmologic
    • Oral/Maxillofacial
    • Orthopedic
    • Otorhinolaryngologic
    • Peripheral vascular
    • Plastics and reconstructive
    • Procurement and transplant
  • Diagnostic vs. operative endoscopy cases
    • An endoscopy classified as a semi-critical procedure is considered a diagnostic case.
    • An endoscopy classified as a critical procedure is considered an operative case.
    • Diagnostic and operative cases will be counted according to specialty.
    • Diagnostic cases are counted in the SS role up to a total of 10 of the required 120 cases.
    • Vaginal delivery cases are counted in the SS role of the OB/GYN specialty, up to a total of five of the required 120.