Surgical Technology: It's Not Just For Nurses Anymore!
If you are an adrenaline junkie, Surgical Technology may be the right career for you! Surgical Technology: It’s Not Just For Nurses Any MoreIf you think that Florence Nightingale’s great, great grand nurse is standing beside the doctor while he removes your inflamed appendix, think again. Bodies aren’t the only things opening up in the OR. Jobs are too! Surgical Technology is one of the most rapidly growing careers in healthcare. Many technical schools and career colleges are now offering this specific training. Twelve to eighteen months of classroom instruction, coupled with hands-on clinical skill development can land you right in the middle of a very exciting place: The Operating Room—ala pass the scalpel please. Luis Melendez, CST, CSA, has been a surgical technologist for many years. He began his journey while in the military. Today he not only stands on-call for several local trauma centers, he serves as the surgical technologist program director for a career college in his locale. He offers the following to anyone contemplating a new direction. Take his Surg Tech test and see if it’s right for you. Five major benefits that a ST candidate/graduate may consider would be: (In my opinion) 1. If you are an adrenaline junkie….you [would be] in the right profession 2. If you like to get paid for carrying a pager and, in the middle of the night, go from being sound asleep to a crash c-section in the blink of an eye or less…… you [would be] in the right profession. 3. If you like a front "seat" (though you'll most likely be standing) to the wonders of the human body, with all its fluids and smells, you like it!.....you [would be] in the right profession. 4. If you would like the privilege to go through the doors that read "Authorized Personnel Only/ Surgical Attire Required"…you [would be] in the right profession. 5. If you want to develop the thickness of your skin and not take anything personal, because you may have been mistreated, but you know you made a difference in someone's life….you [have chosen] the right profession. So while you’re watching the commercials on TV while you’re getting ready to go to an unrewarding job, where you’re underpaid, underappreciated, think of how you’d look in surgical green. Take off the mask you’ve had to wear to get through the day and trade it for a surgical one. You’ll like what you see and will be helping people live. And you know, it doesn’t get much better than that! |
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- Posted by: Alane
I've been in healthcare for almost 30 years and have BSN and a Masters in Healthcare Administration. I find less and less to recommend a healthcare related job, particularly in a hospital setting. Between 1977 and 2006 wages have increased in the ER (a high risk area, said to pay better in comparison with floor nursing) from $8/hr to $28/hr on the average, which is well below the 30 year national average for other jobs with similar qualification, and the costs to acquire a nursing education are well over 300%+ higher. There is little willingness by hospitals to staff adequately, leaving RNs high and dry in terms of completing almost every aspect of patient care with very little help. I don't know 1 RN with 5+ years experience that does not have back,neck or other skeleto-muscular problems due to few available ancillary personnel to assist with delivery of physical care. Call is more frequent, hours are now 12-14 hr shifts, not an 8 hr day--mandatory continuing education is very expensive and often not reimbursed. Even a 40 hour/week job barely produces a living wage for a family of 3 with someone that has my education and experience. Medical care is imploding and our healthcare 'system' in the US is in dire difficulty because people like me are leaving for positions that pay us what we are worth with less stress, better hours, no 'on-call', gentler physical requirements, no ongoing licensing and educational expenses and that acknowledge our abilities and contributions--which rarely occurs in any meaningful way in a hospital. Medical professionals are also famous for 'eating their own' and staff are not very supportive of one another. It's a dog eat dog world and in 30 years, I have had a variety of jobs, responsibilities, management positions and the experience to know of what I speak. I still love many aspects of the work itself, but could never recommend the conditions in which I have to do it. I travel and find this is true from Hawaii to Florida. Sorry for presenting an opinion that many will see as negative, and some will call it burn out, but that is not the case. I've taken breaks along the way specifically to avoid that issue. It is the future of medicine, hospital and clinic care, private medicine, etc. that is the more important issue. I recommend everyone who reads this, return to the article by the author above and re-read Item #5 - because that will happen to you every day and the 'warm fuzzies' you get telling yourself you are making a difference don't help you lift an average 500-1000#/day over 13 hours, it doesnt give you a meal or bathroom break, it doesn't help you with tons of paper or computer work and and doesn't pay you when you go to a deposition when someone sues - and they do sue - despite our good intentions and best efforts in a very tightly wound, hard hitting, tough job. So strap on your armour ladies and gentlemen and get ready if you go into healthcare. And don't say you weren't given the skinny ahead of time. This is my first blog EVER and that's because I feel it's important to give those who are thinking of healthcare an acurate picture of the condition of the profession in 2006.- #2
- Posted by: diondra sams
This is a very good article; it has every answer for a question a surgical tech would ask.- #3
- Posted by: Jacob Frantz
I am considering a career as a surgery tech. As a mid life change..am looking for tips, or any other information..about what to expect..what should i expect to pay for training to get certificate and where are the best places to get it...