Surgical Tech

[HMRivera]

Is anyone a surgical tech or knows anyone who is? What exactly do they do and how is the work environment? I'm considering choosing this for C school but I would like to know how it is beforehand.

[tiffanynacole]

my mom is a surg tech. what would you like to know?

[HMRivera]

my mom is a surg tech. what would you like to know?

I just want to know specifically what it is they do on a daily basis. Would I just be handing the doctor surgical equipment or is there more to it? What is the work environment like?

[tiffanynacole]

surg techs (surgery assistant). you stand and help the surgeon. setting up the operating room. pulling out all the instruments needed. passing instruments during surgery and being the surgeons extra pair of hands. stitching up patients. pretty much doing whatever the surgeon needs done. my mom was on the heart team for a few years and even had to hold closed the heart when it was spitting blood. she loved her job very much. the only negative sides are long work hours. she was on call most of the time and some surgeries lasted really long. when they lost a patient it tore her up for a few days.
i had the opportunity to go in many surgeries with her and observe. the worst one had to be a csection. i almost lost my lunch.
she has now went back to school to become a nurse.
sorry for the novel. if you want to know anything else specifically i will try to answer or call her to find out more.
(:

[HMRivera]

surg techs (surgery assistant). you stand and help the surgeon. setting up the operating room. pulling out all the instruments needed. passing instruments during surgery and being the surgeons extra pair of hands. stitching up patients. pretty much doing whatever the surgeon needs done. my mom was on the heart team for a few years and even had to hold closed the heart when it was spitting blood. she loved her job very much. the only negative sides are long work hours. she was on call most of the time and some surgeries lasted really long. when they lost a patient it tore her up for a few days.
i had the opportunity to go in many surgeries with her and observe. the worst one had to be a csection. i almost lost my lunch.
she has now went back to school to become a nurse.
sorry for the novel. if you want to know anything else specifically i will try to answer or call her to find out more.
(:
No its ok thank you that's exactly what I was looking for it was good information.

[tiffanynacole]

no problem, glad i could help

[notjustaUSNwife]

I have a friend that is a Corpsman Surgical Tech. She does primarily OB surgeries. She also works shifts cleaning all the medical equipment used in the entire hospital (disinfecting/autoclaving/etc.).

[tiffanynacole]

yea my mom sometimes had to clean up after wards. take the instruments down to some sterilizing room.
sounds like military/civilian are very similar

[Diesirae27]

No its ok thank you that's exactly what I was looking for it was good information.

came across this on another forum. I'm looking into surgical tech as well.

"
.... In C school, they had 3 months of in class work and another 3 of clinicals. They had to assist in 120 surgeries in hospitals around SAT (San Antonio Texas). They had to do 3 c-sections too. I do remember the call after the first c section.....
The one stressful thing I remember him saying was when the OBGYN cut an artery and there was blood squirting all over him. "

[notjustaUSNwife]

yea my mom sometimes had to clean up after wards. take the instruments down to some sterilizing room.
sounds like military/civilian are very similar

They are almost exactly the same. Their schooling is much shorter but they get the same credentials when they're done with their schooling. Same goes for a lot of the other C-Schools that have a civilian equivalent.