Surgical Assistant or Technologist

Overview and Key Facts

What Do They Do?

A surgical assistant could...

Overview Listen to this section

Every surgical procedure, whether minor or major, requires a team of detail-oriented professionals, including the surgical technologist. From cleaning and setting up surgical equipment to assisting the medical team, the surgical technologist helps each surgery run smoothly. Job opportunities for surgical technologists continue to grow with advances in surgical techniques and technology.

Do You Have the Skills and Characteristics of a Surgical Assistant or Technologist?

1. Monitoring: ? Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
2. Active Listening: ? Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
3. Operation Monitoring: ? Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
4. Coordination: ? Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
5. Critical Thinking: ? Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

6. Speaking: ? Talking to others to convey information effectively.
7. Time Management: ? Managing one's own time and the time of others.
8. Active Learning: ? Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
9. Complex Problem Solving: ? Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
10. Equipment Maintenance: ? Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.

Core Tasks

Think about if you'd like the typical tasks a Surgical Assistant or Technologist might do:

• Maintain a proper sterile field during surgical procedures.
• Count sponges, needles, and instruments before and after operation.
• Scrub arms and hands and assist the surgical team to scrub and put on gloves, masks, and surgical clothing.
• Prepare patients for surgery, including positioning patients on the operating table and covering them with sterile surgical drapes to prevent exposure.
• Provide technical assistance to surgeons, surgical nurses, or anesthesiologists.
• Hand instruments and supplies to surgeons and surgeons' assistants, hold retractors and cut sutures, and perform other tasks as directed by surgeon during operation.
• Prepare, care for, and dispose of tissue specimens taken for laboratory analysis.
• Wash and sterilize equipment, using germicides and sterilizers.
• Monitor and continually assess operating room conditions, including patient and surgical team needs.
• Operate, assemble, adjust, or monitor sterilizers, lights, suction machines, or diagnostic equipment to ensure proper operation.
• Prepare dressings or bandages and apply or assist with their application following surgery.
• Clean and restock operating room, gathering and placing equipment and supplies and arranging instruments according to instructions, such as a preference card.
• Order surgical supplies.