There are about 2500 surgical instrument technicians employed in Michigan, and job projections say 70 more jobs per year through 2014 will be added. This field is expected to grow faster than the average for all jobs in Michigan. Surgical instrument technicians, among other duties, sterilize and place the tools and instruments on trays doctors use during surgery and hand them the ones they need as they need them. If you're good at dealing with objects, processes, and stressful situations and you want a job that allows you to help others in a state that needs employees in this line of work, you might want to learn to become a surgical instrument technician in Michigan.
Instructions
1. Take classes at an accredited college in Michigan that offers a one or two year surgical instrument technician program. Take classes in surgical specialty procedures, medical terminology, general surgical procedures, operating room techniques, physiology, anatomy, microbiology and clinical practice. Learn to use diagnostic equipment, suction machines, lighting equipment, and computer software programs like photo imaging, internet browser, and e-mail.
2. Check with these Michigan colleges to see if they have openings in their surgical instrument technician programs. Baker College places 94% of their graduates in jobs and has schools in Flint, Jackson, Clinton Township, Allen Park, Muskegon, or Port Huron, that offer two year associate's degrees. Kalamazoo Valley Community College offers a two year associate's degree. Call 269-488-4400 and ask for Pat DeHaan. For information about Macomb Community Colleg's two year associate's degree program in Clinton, call program director Elizabeth Ness at 586-286-2192. You can get a one year associate's in Applied Science degree from Oakland Community College through William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.
3. Learn to work as part of a team, be calm in stressful situations, understand medical terminology, keep confidential information to yourself, and work under supervision using step by step procedures. You will be assisting anesthesiologists, surgeons and nurses as needed during surgery, preparing patients for operations by washing, shaving, and disinfecting them, transporting patients to and from the operating room, helping the surgical team scrub up and put on gloves, masks and other surgical clothing, handle drugs and blood supplies, hand surgical supplies and tools to the surgeon as requested, and clean and sterilize the operating room and equipment after surgery.
4. Graduate with an associate's degree and pass a national certification test to become a surgical instrument technician. Get recertified every four years if you have a one year degree and every six years if you have a two year degree. to be recertified you have to take 72-80 credit hours of education during the years between your original certification and recertification. Get credits by taking classes, attending seminars, and retaking exams.
5. Join the Association of Surgical Technicians. For a membership fee, you can take more classes and the price you pay to take tests is waived. You'll come out ahead.
Tags: surgical instrument, surgical instrument technician, year associate, associate degree, instrument technician, operating room, become surgical
