Surgical Technology is a career path that involves every activity involved in surgery from preparing the patient and the operating room, to transferring patients to the recovery room and restocking the operating room. . Some of the pre-surgery duties involved in Surgical Technology are; preparing the operating room, preparing the patients and assisting the surgical team. Surgical technologists also help during surgery. Surgical duties technologists may perform are; assisting with equipment, keeping count of sponges and other supplies, operating sterilizers, lights or suction machines and diagnostic equipment. Post surgery duties include; transferring patients to the recovery room and cleaning and restocking the operating room. Some surgical technologists specialize in a particular area of surgery, such as heart surgery. Other technologists, called circulating technologists provide the interface between the sterile surgical team and help with anesthesia and open packages so that sterile persons can use the contents. Technologists who obtain further training can advance to first assistants with greater involvement in the surgical process. .
The World Health Organization maintains a Surgical Safety Checklist on its website that is a list of duties commonly performed by surgical technologists. The Checklist is broken up into three sections: Sign In duties that are done before the induction of anesthesia, Time Out duties that are performed before the skin incision and Sign Out duties that are completed before the patient leaves the operating room. One group of Sign In tasks involve talking to the patient confirming their identity, insuring the site on the patient’s body for the operation is marked, describing the procedure again and making sure the patient has given their informed consent. Another important duty of the surgical technician is reviewing the patient’s files and speaking with the patient to make sure all allergies are clearly documented and making sure the surgical team is aware of these allergies. Another set of pre-surgery Sign In tasks involve preparing the anesthesia safety check, making sure the patient does not have any existing breathing difficulties and ensuring any potential breathing assistance equipment and personnel are available during surgery. Surgical technologists also prepare intravenous fluids, including blood, and ensure that intravenous access is in place so that fluids may be administered as needed. They also check the pulse oximeter that measures pulse rate and the amount of oxygen in the blood to make sure that is in place and operating correctly. .
After anesthesia, but before the skin incision is the longest lists of tasks on the World Health Organization’s Surgical Safety Checklist. The first group of duties is making sure that all team member’s have introduced themselves by name and the role they will play during the surgery and the surgeon, anesthesiologist and nurse have verbally confirmed “the patient, site and procedure.” . The surgical technologist also works with the surgical team to review and prepare for anticipated critical events with the surgical team. The surgeon describes the potential critical or unexpected steps that sometimes come into play in the particular type of surgery, the anticipated length of the operation and the expected blood loss. The anesthesiologist inquires into patient-specific concerns and possible complications. The Nursing Team reviews sterility and equipment issues and any other concerns. The third group of tasks in the Time Out section of the Checklist is to determine if antibiotic prophylaxis was needed and if so confirm that it was administered in the last sixty minutes, and to insure any essential imaging is properly displayed.
The World Health Organization lists the following tasks to be done and confirmed by the surgical technologist and “the nursing team before the patient leaves the operating room.” The technologist and the nursing team also confirm that the proceedure has been recorded by name and that name includes patient’s name as well. Then they review the “ instrument, sponge and needle counts.” to make sure they are correct, check that any specimens are labelled courrectly and that there are no problems left unaddressed. There is also a review done with the surgeon, nurse and the anesthesologist to address any concerns they may have about the surgery, and recovery process. . Following surgery, technologists help bring the patient to the recovery room, they prep the operating room for the next surgery.
The field of Surgical Technology provides a broad scope of duties, and technologists may choose to specialize in a particular group of tasks, or a particular type of surgery. With the increasing amount of technical equipment involved in the surgical process this career field is advancing quickly. The Mayo Clinic estimates there were presently 71,000 surgical technologists in the year 2000. They estimate that this employment field will grow faster than average as the amout of surgical proceedures increases with the aging population. .
References
Accreditation Review Council on Education in Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting . (2012). Accreditation Review Council on Education in Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting . Retrieved 3 11, 2012, from Accreditation Review Council on Education in Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting : http://www.arcst.org/
Association of Surgical Technologists. (2011). Association of Surgical Technologists. Retrieved 3 11, 2012, from Association of Surgical Technologists: http://www.ast.org/
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2012). Surgical Technology. Retrieved 3 11, 2012, from Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayo.edu/mshs/surg-career.html
National Board of Surgical Technolology and Surgical Assisting. (2012). National Board of Surgical Technolology and Surgical Assisting. Retrieved 3 11, 2012, from National Board of Surgical Technolology and Surgical Assisting: http://www.nbstsa.org/
World Health Organization. (2012). Surgical Safety Checklist (First Edition). Retrieved 3 11, 2012, from World Health Organization: http://www.ast.org/professionals/documents/SSSL.pdf
