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| Rob Sanchez |
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Rob founded Surgical Training Aids in 1986 in response to the growing need for expertise in surgical skills by non-surgical health care professionals.
At the time, surgical assisting was a fairly young discipline. Until the 1980s standard practice was that when surgeons needed an extra pair of surgical hands during a procedure, they usually turned to a partner in their practice or a surgeon colleague to perform the assistant function. But the armed services had already recognized the value of a trained surgical assistant in the operating room. Always short on the number of skilled surgeons providing service in the military, medical officers created a successful program to train medical laymen to close wounds and assist surgeons in difficult procedures. The surgeon was able to move on to a new case more quickly by leaving the closing procedures of the surgery in the capable hands of the surgical assistant.
Sanchez received his own surgical training from the U.S. Navy and the many surgeons with whom he worked. After his discharge, he planted roots in Denver and quickly developed a reputation as an excellent surgical assistant. More and more surgeons were beginning to use trained assistants, but casually complained to Al that none of them seemed to have his skills and expertise ? some of them asked him if he would train assistants in the techniques he used.
Inspired by the challenge, Sanchez evaluated what he would need to provide such training. Pigs feet were the standard suturing and tying medium for practicing students. But procedurally, they didn't offer the opportunity to emulate the tissue layers and inherent circulatory concerns associated with various common procedures. Sanchez chose to create his own surgical models. He used materials that were not only accurately represented the characterics of the organic and tissue layers, but appropriately responded to a surgeons tools to mirror the actual steps in a procedure. The training results were so remarkable that Sanchez was invited to hold workshops not only in Colorado but throughout the United States.
Today, surgeons who know Al's training and techniques require their assistants to attend Surgical Training Aids workshops and purchase Al's models and manuals of their own.
Seventeen years later, Al has taught over 3,000 surgical assistants multiple techniques to close wounds, tie sutures and assist surgeons in ways they've never seen or been taught before. They include nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, midwives, students, surgical technologists, surgical assistants, and even physicians. And the typical response from participants is "Why wasn't I taught this way when I was in school?!"
 During the earliest days of surgical-model making, Sanchez enlisted his young son Rob to assist him in manufacturing and assembling the models. The interest stuck. Rob Sanchez became a licensed CSA/FA himself and continued to assist his father in building models and in teaching workshops. Together they have criss-crossed the country providing workshop participants with the skills and expertise appreciated by surgeons.
Today, Rob Sanchez runs the daily operations of Surgical Training Aids and trains participants alongside his dad. Al Sanchez now concentrates exclusively on training as a senior instructor in order to meet the growing demand for Surgical Training Aids workshops nationwide. |
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