Surgical Tech

Better in terms of "looks good" to committees?
Personally I think its better cause its more interesting, more fun, and pays better, and if you want to go into surgery some day, it would be fun. But the program usually takes a year to complete before you're certified.

 

Have you ever actually scrubbed in on a surgery? It's not that exciting....most of the time you're holding retractors and handing them stuff. Just playing devil's advocate....

 

Sure, you are seeing surgeries but you aren't seeing physician/patient interaction in any meaningful way. You should be doing something that lets you watch, and model, physician behavior with people who are awake. How do physicians (or other clinicians) make small talk, put patients at ease, break bad news, deal with difficult patients, provide instruction, close an encounter?

Do you really want to do a year of classroom work to stand around holding a retractor or handing instruments to a surgeon?

 

Plus, surgeons can get cranky and start throwing stuff and swearing.

 

I think the work hours would be very long...

 

Simply put. Don't spend a year getting certified to be a scrub tech if all you want to do is observe surgeries so it looks good on your med school application. It's already been posted that observing surgeries gets really boring really fast. You would probably get more value from shadowing a physician, and you wouldn't need a year of training. Remember, there are other fields of medicine besides surgery, and much can be learned and much insight can be gained into the life of a physician outside the OR.

 

it's not all that. being an scrub tech means standing for 8+ hours under hot lights, with your doc yelling at you for giving him a pin puller instead of a rongeur or a hemostat instead of a sweetheart...(true stories hahah). plus if the operating room you're in doesn't have laminar flow, you'll have to wear those crappy helmets that get hot as hell.

i'd think regular volunteering/shadowing of a physician is best because you can go to as many of his surgeries as you can and you can dictate your own hours, sorta. being an ST is a full-time endeavour.

 

Ahh, I see where you're coming from. I think, depending on what ever other experiences you have, that adcoms probably would be more impressed with clinical experiences you can get.

Don't mind my enthusiasm. I really wanted to do the surg tech program so I could watch a lot of surgeries & get paid for it. It also seemed like a good way to have a decent part time job through med school. But that's just me. I spend a day every week shadowing a surgeon in the OR, and I have yet to get bored!

 

I'm currently a scrub tech and i think it is an awesome experience! I have seen more cool stuff in the OR than most MSIII's and IV's. I was lucky though, was working full time in a research lab at a med school right across the street from the hospital where i was also working PRN. Saw the posting for a "Surgical Tech Trainee" applied and got it. It is an in-house training program that the hospital runs...no class, just short week long orientation in a class like setting...then we scrub with preceptors for about 9 months. In that time we rotate through GAGU.. (general, arterial, gyne and Urology), Plastics, Burns and Neurosurgery...then Ortho, then ENT. The hours can be a brute sometimes, because you are always on your feet...but it is so cool SEE and DO the things we do in the OR...and I've really gotten used to the standing...just buy a comfy pair of shoes..it works.

PLUS, if you are an applicant and scrub at a teaching hospital..let me tell ya you can bump shoulders with some influential docs. But even if that doesnt help, at least they know your name..and that you are a hard working interested applicant. Some of them ask if i want to go on rounds with them (hell yeah, very interesting!), most keep me updated about case when i scrubed with them, and you get to pick the residents and med students brains about neurotic pre-med crap...as long as you dont look/sound like an idiot, youre golden.

So, yeah, i think the experience you gain is well worth the work. However, i was lucky to stumble on my current position and not many are like this. Bottom line: its nice to get paid, fairly decent, to get a strong preview to medical school ....specifically surgery core clerkship and every specialty you can think of