As taken from the following website:
http://www.caahep.org/programs.asp?doc=ST_PD&pcode=ST
Surgical Technology
Surgical technologists are allied health professionals who are an integral part of the team of medical practitioners providing surgical care to patients in a variety of settings.
The surgical technologist works under medical supervision to facilitate the safe and effective conduct of invasive surgical procedures. This individual works under the supervision of a surgeon to ensure that the operating room or environment is safe, that equipment functions properly, and that the operative procedure is conducted under conditions that maximize patient safety.
A surgical technologist possesses expertise in the theory and application of sterile and aseptic technique and combines the knowledge of human anatomy, surgical procedures, and implementation tools and technologies to facilitate a physician's performance of invasive therapeutic and diagnostic procedures.
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To become a surgical technologist, you must complete a CAAHEP approved program. These programs are at MINIMUM one year in length. These programs all include an in-hospital OR clinical section of at least 300 hours. You could not, for example, complete a surgical technology program over the summer. You may luck out and find a weekend program. Most of them are not CAAHEP accredited are very expensive, and are not very good. You might also be lucky enough to get a hospital to train you to scrub OJT. But in our world of increasing medical liability and focus on educational improvement for healthcare personnel, such training has gone the way of the dinosaur. Besides, if they trained you, they would most likely require you to work for them for a period of time.
Yep, I think trying to complete a surgical technology program WHILE taking pre-med classes and finishing a BS degree would be too time intensive. In over 90% of programs all clinical hours are done in the daytime (7am -3pm). You would have little time to go to pre-med classes. In addition to clinical hours there are classes to attend that would further limit the time you could spend in pre-med classes.
Could you work as a surgical technologist (if you had already completed a program) while taking pre-med classes and finishing a BSc? Sure! That is what I am doing. I work as a traveling tech.
I had to finish the surgical tech program first before I could do the pre-med classes full time. Although the program was not hard, it did eat up a lot of my time. I was only able to complete two of my pre-med classes while in the surgical tech program. This was at the end of the program. I spent 7 am to 3pm in the hospital. There were no other class or study demands and I could attend summer classes at night.
As far as the titles surgical tech or scrub tech, they tend to be interchangeable. I do not know what hospital the last poster works at, but it is VERY rare for folks who have not gone to school to learn how to scrub to be called surgical techs. Yes, you could work in a hospital doing the things he/she described ("pull instruments for cases, run labs in traumas, get blood...ect") but only in this facility would you be called a surgical tech. In most places you would be considered an orderly, tech or CNA (if you have the proper training) assigned to the OR.
A surgical technologist that had completed a program, but has not taken the certifying exam is often called an ST. A surgical technologist that has completed a program and taken the certifying exam offered by the Association of Surgical Technologist (AST) is allowed to use the title CST.
If you feel you have the time, then by all means become a surgical tech/ scrub tech. I love my job. I think becoming a tech is the best decision I ever made. It reignited my desire to become a doctor.
If you don't have that kind of time though, you might want to take one of the other poster's advice, become an ER tech. Why not look into EMT-B training? It is intense, but can be completed in a much shorter period of time. Many posters on SDN have done exactly this. They all seem to praise the experience they gain as EMT-B's assigned to the ED. Having worked in an ED I am considering this myself. Check out the PreHospital [EMS] and the Non-traditional forums. There are lots of threads there on this topic.
Here is the website for AST (Association of Surgical Technologist):
www.ast.org
Here is the website to NREMT (National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians):
www.nremt.org
Good fortune
Agape
