Is it worth becoming a surgical tech?

[MedicallyEnthused]

Ok, so I am currently attending a community college, where I am finishing up my 2nd year, with plans to transfer to the 4 year state school in the town I live in.

The thing is, I recently was able to shadow several surgeons during winter break, and I spoke to many surgical assistants, and surgical techs as well. I did some research and found out I could become a surgical tech with not as much training as I thought.

Based on the courses I have taken, and what I need to take, I would have to take an additional 45 credits (37 of which are surgical tech courses). The certificate or degree is at a different community college (20 min drive away). Besides the surgical tech courses I would have to take, I would have to take a lower level math (career math), as I have already taken college algebra, along with microbiology, human growth and development, and medical terminology. Besides those 3 courses I have all other courses (besides surgical tech) and pre requisites under my belt. (Gen bio, A&P I, A&P II, Eng Comp I, Eng Comp II, and various elective courses)

I was planning to get an EMT certification this summer (13 credits) to be able to volunteer as an EMT by sometime in the fall. I am interested in both pre-hospital along with being in the OR/Hospital, but I am so very much more interested in the aspect of surgery.

I already know what specialty I want to go into after medical school, and you can already guess it is a surgical specialty, due to the fact that I am so very interested in it.

If I do this, should I give up the EMT certifications to take more courses that will go toward becoming a surgical tech during the summer?
No matter what I do it would pretty much take a year to becoming a surgical tech and by doing so, postponing medical school by one year.

Is it worth the extra time to do this, or should I just go for the EMT?
Are there any other clinical hospital work I can get certified for that would be a shorter time frame for training such as an ER tech or X-ray tech?

I would choose to become a surgical tech over any other job I can do during my time in college, but I would prefer jobs in the hospital such as an ER tech over becoming an EMT.


Sorry for such a long post.
Any and all comment/suggestions are much appreciated.
Thank you.

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[lumpyduster]

I'd just go for EMT if your end goal is MD. You could always work as a scribe to stay in the hospital as you suggested? Up to you, but I'm not sure if adding on another year just to be a surgical tech is worth it in the long run. At least it wouldn't be to me.

 

[armybound]

doesn't scrub tech certification also take a long clinical training? I thought it was like 18 months - 2 years total between the classroom and OR.

I feel like working as a scrub tech would make the road to becoming a doctor a little longer, but more interesting.

 

[The Buff OP]

Ok, so I am currently attending a community college, where I am finishing up my 2nd year, with plans to transfer to the 4 year state school in the town I live in.

The thing is, I recently was able to shadow several surgeons during winter break, and I spoke to many surgical assistants, and surgical techs as well. I did some research and found out I could become a surgical tech with not as much training as I thought.

Based on the courses I have taken, and what I need to take, I would have to take an additional 45 credits (37 of which are surgical tech courses). The certificate or degree is at a different community college (20 min drive away). Besides the surgical tech courses I would have to take, I would have to take a lower level math (career math), as I have already taken college algebra, along with microbiology, human growth and development, and medical terminology. Besides those 3 courses I have all other courses (besides surgical tech) and pre requisites under my belt. (Gen bio, A&P I, A&P II, Eng Comp I, Eng Comp II, and various elective courses)

I was planning to get an EMT certification this summer (13 credits) to be able to volunteer as an EMT by sometime in the fall. I am interested in both pre-hospital along with being in the OR/Hospital, but I am so very much more interested in the aspect of surgery.

I already know what specialty I want to go into after medical school, and you can already guess it is a surgical specialty, due to the fact that I am so very interested in it.

If I do this, should I give up the EMT certifications to take more courses that will go toward becoming a surgical tech during the summer?
No matter what I do it would pretty much take a year to becoming a surgical tech and by doing so, postponing medical school by one year.

Is it worth the extra time to do this, or should I just go for the EMT?
Are there any other clinical hospital work I can get certified for that would be a shorter time frame for training such as an ER tech or X-ray tech?

I would choose to become a surgical tech over any other job I can do during my time in college, but I would prefer jobs in the hospital such as an ER tech over becoming an EMT.


Sorry for such a long post.
Any and all comment/suggestions are much appreciated.
Thank you.

I was on the same boat as you, brother. I chose to go the EMT route. Surgical tech was just going to delay my main goal (medical school). If you want the certification it takes about 9 months. I'm trying to go for AEMT right there you get to learn more cool stuff, like IV's, intubation, IM injections and much more. Going for EMT-B and AEMT will take you about 3 semesters and you are more likely to get picked up as tech when you know how to do all those AEMT skills. Surgical tech you will just be an assistant to a surgeon.

 

[Winged Scapula]

doesn't scrub tech certification also take a long clinical training? I thought it was like 18 months - 2 years total between the classroom and OR.

I feel like working as a scrub tech would make the road to becoming a doctor a little longer, but more interesting.

I get lots of scrub Tech students in my OR I don't think it's anywhere near that long. I'll ask next week and get a clarification.

 

[Oso]

doesn't scrub tech certification also take a long clinical training? I thought it was like 18 months - 2 years total between the classroom and OR.

I feel like working as a scrub tech would make the road to becoming a doctor a little longer, but more interesting.

"future urologist"

"show me your genitals"

"location: uranus"

Also, I know absolutely nothing about becoming a surgical tech, so I cannot contribute to the thread. bye!

 

[Dr. Biology]

Ill be honest with you it would be "great clinical experience", but a tremendous side track if your endgame is medicine. I shadowed a surgeon in the OR for close to 6 months and saw a lot of interesting stuff and met some interesting techs, but my overall impression of them was not very good. Many were self-absorbed, uptight, and overall quite bad at their jobs... I was observing my mentor do an endoscopy and he needed to increase the diameter of a stricture in the esophagus, we had to wait 10 minutes on the tech (of 3 years) to go get the "balloon" because she didn't prep correctly. Another one interrupted the surgeon while he was explaining the gist of the procedure to me by yelling at me and tried to get me kicked out of the OR because she thought I had to be scrubbed in, fully gowned and gloved to observe an inguinal hernia surgery.... I don't want to say they are all bad, because I met a few great ones who were just as skilled as the physician, but many if them are poorly trained and have no place working in the vicinity of an unconscious patent. my point is, if your end game is medicine take the shortest route between point A and point B.

 

[aspirantmed]

I ended up going with EMT since it gives you much more of an autonomous role. In the field, there is no attending or resident; you are the point person to think, decide, and act. I love that, and I'm not sure I'd have gotten it if I had instead decided to be a scribe or tech.

 

[mmmcdowe]

probably harder to balance classes and daytime surgery work.

 

[Planes2Doc]

Just do clinical volunteering. It's a far smaller commitment than a clinical job. It will give you more time to work on your grades and MCAT, plus give you more freetime. ADCOMs see entry-level clinical work all the time, it won't set you apart. Plus the money is pocket change compared to future earnings.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Ill be honest with you it would be "great clinical experience", but a tremendous side track if your endgame is medicine. I shadowed a surgeon in the OR for close to 6 months and saw a lot of interesting stuff and met some interesting techs, but my overall impression of them was not very good. Many were self-absorbed, uptight, and overall quite bad at their jobs... I was observing my mentor do an endoscopy and he needed to increase the diameter of a stricture in the esophagus, we had to wait 10 minutes on the tech (of 3 years) to go get the "balloon" because she didn't prep correctly. Another one interrupted the surgeon while he was explaining the gist of the procedure to me by yelling at me and tried to get me kicked out of the OR because she thought I had to be scrubbed in, fully gowned and gloved to observe an inguinal hernia surgery.... I don't want to say they are all bad, because I met a few great ones who were just as skilled as the physician, but many if them are poorly trained and have no place working in the vicinity of an unconscious patent. my point is, if your end game is medicine take the shortest route between point A and point B.

Hmmm…that sounds more like a scrub *nurse*. I've worked in many ORs and while there are some scrub techs that I don't care for, the attitude you're describing, especially toward students, is more common IMHO with scrub nurses.

I've never met any that were as "skilled as the physician", LOL.

Bottom line: the OP should do it if it really interests them but this is not really the best route toward getting experience/bolstering your CV for a potential future medical career.

 

[Dr. Biology]

Hmmm…that sounds more like a scrub *nurse*. I've worked in many ORs and while there are some scrub techs that I don't care for, the attitude you're describing, especially toward students, is more common IMHO with scrub nurses.

I've never met any that were as "skilled as the physician", LOL.

Bottom line: the OP should do it if it really interests them but this is not really the best route toward getting experience/bolstering your CV for a potential future medical career.

I was pandering quite a bit. I never understood, why are they so up tight towards students? I never came close to the equipment or anything sterile or was rude or did anything I wasn't supposed to.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I was pandering quite a bit. I never understood, why are they so up tight towards students? I never came close to the equipment or anything sterile or was rude or did anything I wasn't supposed to.

Meh…because they can be.

Its an age old power play; the reasons are myriad. Perhaps they feel threatened when they see someone younger than them on a pathway to success that they will never achieve. Perhaps because they are tasked with maintaining the sterile field, they become overly cautious about it. Perhaps because they've seen ignorant pre-med and med students contaminate the field and they have to re-prep and drape, so they are paranoid about it.

Take a gander at some of the med student forum threads about Scrub Nurses and you'll see you aren't alone in this experience. They tend not to let up until you're a senior surgical resident. Now they just laugh at me if I mistakenly contaminate the field (I use a clear prep solution so sometimes I'll touch the patient without scrubbing, being unaware that they are already prepped).

 

[Dr. Biology]

Meh…because they can be.

Its an age old power play; the reasons are myriad. Perhaps they feel threatened when they see someone younger than them on a pathway to success that they will never achieve. Perhaps because they are tasked with maintaining the sterile field, they become overly cautious about it. Perhaps because they've seen ignorant pre-med and med students contaminate the field and they have to re-prep and drape, so they are paranoid about it.

Take a gander at some of the med student forum threads about Scrub Nurses and you'll see you aren't alone in this experience. They tend not to let up until you're a senior surgical resident. Now they just laugh at me if I mistakenly contaminate the field (I use a clear prep solution so sometimes I'll touch the patient without scrubbing, being unaware that they are already prepped).

that's what I figured, but if nurses handle the majority of those tasks, then what really is the point of a scrub tech?

 

[Winged Scapula]

that's what I figured, but if nurses handle the majority of those tasks, then what really is the point of a scrub tech?

A scrub tech is cheaper to hire than a scrub nurse. You will increasingly find scrub techs in the operating room with nurses being relegated to circulating positions (handling specimens etc) or management/supervisor.

 

[armybound]

Now they just laugh at me if I mistakenly contaminate the field (I use a clear prep solution so sometimes I'll touch the patient without scrubbing, being unaware that they are already prepped).

gotta use the oompa loompa juice

 

[Winged Scapula]

gotta use the oompa loompa juice

I (and several others) were noting that lots of patients were complaining of rashes in the area prepped (most notably the part under the drapes), so we (I, a pediatric surgeon and two ENTs) switched to the clear Chlorhex.

 

[armybound]

I (and several others) were noting that lots of patients were complaining of rashes in the area prepped (most notably the part under the drapes), so we (I, a pediatric surgeon and two ENTs) switched to the clear Chlorhex.

interesting. I can't say I've heard any patients complain yet, but I'll be on the lookout. I like the tinted stuff so I know it's on

 

[Winged Scapula]

interesting. I can't say I've heard any patients complain yet, but I'll be on the lookout. I like the tinted stuff so I know it's on

I thought it was my imagination or just dumb luck until I was talking to some of the other guys in the lounge and they had noted it too. We all noted that it was only with the orange Chlorhexidine (not the blue, which we had a hard time getting anyway), and the rash was only in the area that was prepped and that it typically spared the area exposed/outside of the towels - the operative field. We assumed the latter was washed off/rubbed off during the case, although there was potential for the towels to be trapping prep underneath and causing a caustic reaction on the skin, although we waiting the requisite 3 minutes.

I spoke to the rep and of course, she tried to blame it on how it was applied. I think it was probably an issue with the lot that was sold to this one hospital, because I only had the problem at one facility, and not others were I used it or it was related to the "3 minute wait" because only at this hospital where I had the problem did the staff actually wait the 3 minutes before draping. The rep started going round and round about that, "that's not how its supposed to be done" etc and I pointed out to her that that may be the case, but we couldn't deny that we only had the rashes at the hospital that followed their recommendations for drying time before draping.

Anyway, that was several years ago and since we switched to the clear, none of us have had a reaction.

 

[The Buff OP]

What's up with the OP not replying back? Not even a thank you. Rude.

 

[katiemaude]

I work in an OR and know a lot of scrub techs. You can get a degree within a year. Sometimes clinicals are included in that. Finding a job as a scrub tech is often related to how well you do on your clincals/internship and where you do it. If you are taking the long and winding path toward med school and need to make a decent income while you take one or two classes at a time, scrub tech would not be a bad job. But it is not a stepping stone to becoming a surgeon.

I would argue that it is probably not the best use of your time. You will not be getting patient contact in the sense that you are talking to anyone conscious and learning people skills. You are going to become familiar with instruments you may or may not use in whatever specialty you eventually land in. You may be obersving techniques that are obsolete by the time you become a surgeon. You are not going to actually be DOING surgery- you are handing equipment to the surgeon and to the PA or resident.

No doubt, it can be very cool and exciting if you are pumped about surgery and you will see interesting stuff. But a rockin' MCAT score will probably serve you better in terms of getting into medical school.