The last few years have left a lot of people unemployed. The going consensus is that if you don’t have a job, now is the best time to be in school. Even with the economies sudden down fall the health care industry has remained strong, as is currently still recruiting for health care professionals.
In health care there is a variety of different professions one can enter into. People choose to be LVN’s, CNA’s, physician assistants, sometimes even doctors. But one profession often times goes unnoticed, And that is surgical Technicians.
Surgical Technicians are medical professionals that are in charge of assisting the surgeons during a procedure. Their responsibilities during a procedure include sterilizing the surgical area, and keeping it sterilized. They also are in charge of sterilizing the tools that are used during the operation and being well versed in their usage and functions. During the procedure a surgical technician is in charge of handing the surgeon each and every tool they ask for. Whether it be the scalpel, the clamps, or suction, the surgical technician needs to be ready to hand the tool to the surgeon quickly. They tend to have added responsibilities depending on which surgeon they are assisting but for the most part those are their main responsibilities.
Unlike other medical professions, the surgical technician schooling is relatively fast and painless. The schooling teaches sterilization, the tools and techniques used for surgery, and clinical lab hours. It can easily be completed in under a year, and more often then not the training center provides job placement.
What really surprises people is how much surgical technicians make. Often times they start out at around eighteen to twenty dollars an hour. However the surgical technician makes most of his or her money by being on call. The surgical Technician is paid for every hour they are on call ina given week. And they can easily be on call for an entire week straight. This means that 24/7 a surgical technician is getting paid for his or her time.
Now that doesn’t come across at first as a lot of money, however imagine being paid every hour of every day for weeks on end. The amount of money the surgical technician makes quickly adds up, and quite simply put, it is not uncommon fo them to clear 100K a year after a few years of employment.
Best of all, while a surgical technician is on call they are simply required to be fifteen minutes from the hospital. So the surgical technician is being paid while they are at home cooking dinner, while they are working out at the gym, while they are playing with their children, they are paid for simply living their lives.
When interviewing a surgical technician last week he explained that he had been on call for the last two weeks. During those two weeks he was only called in twice. He was paid for almost 650 hours while lounging at home playing with his kids!!
The career of Surgical Technicians is often not referenced when deciding which medical profession to go into. However it is quite simply one of the most laid back and rewarding careers a person can choose for themselves.