Although people in this career used to be called "surgical technicians,"
that term is being replaced by "surgical technologists."
"They are the same thing, but the official term is 'technologist,'" says
Bob Caruthers. He is the deputy executive director of the Association of Surgical
Technologists (AST).
The poster showed a surgeon sitting in front of an operating room table.
The caption said: "He can't do this job alone." The advertisement inspired
Eugene Maguire, now a surgical technologist, to learn all he could about the
technical side of surgery.
Surgical technologists (known as operating room nurses in Canada) create
a sterile field in the operating room, set up required instruments, pass instruments
to the surgeon, count instruments and sponges to make sure nothing is left
inside the patient, handle specimens and look for breaks in "sterile technique."
"If the surgeon gets a hole in their glove, or touches something that's
not sterile, that's a break in sterile technique," explains Kevin Frey of
the Association of Surgical Technologists.
During some operations, surgical technologists hold retractors or stop
bleeding so a surgeon can get a clear look at the situation. Some states also
allow surgical technologists to circulate, or work as a link between the sterile
operating room and the rest of the hospital. They label specimens, deliver
them to the lab and retrieve implements or supplies from other rooms that
are needed during the course of surgery.
"Another role that has just opened up is called first assistant," says
Frey. Instead of a second surgeon being called in for an operation, some American
hospitals are training surgical technologists to help the surgeon identify
anatomy and suture wounds. "It's come about because of health-care reform.
In the past, they would have a second surgeon."
Most U.S. surgical technologists work on staff at major hospitals, mainly
in ORs and delivery rooms. Others are employed in clinics and surgical centers,
and in the offices of physicians and dentists who perform outpatient surgery.
A few work as "private scrubs," employed directly by surgeons who have special
surgical teams like those for liver transplants.
Wherever they work, surgical technologists put in a regular 40-hour week.
They may also be on call or work nights, weekends and holidays on a rotating
basis.
As a surgical technologist, you must be able to stand for long periods
of time and remain alert during operations. You need to be able to handle
instruments quickly and know procedures well so you can have instruments ready
for surgeons without having to be told.
You must also be conscientious and emotionally stable in order to handle
the demands of the operating room environment. That can include exposure to
communicable diseases and unpleasant sights, odors and materials. "There's
a lot of scope to the job if you're interested in learning," says Maguire.