What is a Surgical Technologist, and What Does It Take to Be One?

By Lisa L. Graham Coonrod AS, AAS, BS, CST

A few weeks ago, many celebrated National Surgical Technologist week; me included. This was my thirtieth celebration and a first for the 19 individuals I celebrated with.  I am a Surgical Technology Instructor and those 19 individuals are, of course, my students.  They are students at Manatee Technical College East Campus in Bradenton Florida.

These 19 individuals are hard at work in the classroom, the lab, and in their clinical externships in the operating rooms (ORs) at local hospitals. They are diligently learning skill sets, changing life-long learned habits, and cramming more information into that part of the brain that stores short-term memory and then shifting that same information into long-term memory that can be accessed and then recalled in the blink of an eye, with muscle memory kicking in to assure they don’t miss a beat.   They will come better and faster with each surgery they scrub.  Each day in the OR is working to transform them into amazingly quick, reactive, and intuitive individuals who know what the surgeon needs next.  They are learning to become part of a well working surgical team.

When in an instant the ordinary turns into urgency and then shifts and accelerates into emergency, the surgical tech stays the course.  In sync with the surgeon and experienced with the surgical procedure, the surgical tech must maintain a calm poise and deliver without the slightest misstep what the surgeon needs. They have every “just in case” thing that could possibly be needed, prepared and ready to go. You see, they were readying everything for that surgery the afternoon before, and now it’s in the hand of the surgeon.

Surgical Techs are caring individuals, who are passionate about their career, and considerate to all. They are professionals who live by a code that few others are versed in.

For theses 19 individuals, Surgical Technology has enveloped their lives. I know this because I am them, or was 30 years ago at age 18. I was a new high school graduate, spending a summer away from home, then starting surgical technology classes in the fall. No one I spoke with had the slightest clue what a surgical technologist did. As a matter of fact I found that the majority of the population had no idea that such a thing even existed. The guidance counselor where I went to school assured me that it was a real thing; although he was not totally sure what the job entailed, he assured me anyone could do it.

My plan was to start out as a surg. tech and then find what I really wanted to do. I would find a job in the medical field having better pay, fewer hours, and much more recognition. Thirty years ago a Surgical Technologist’s pay was less than great, but you could always supplement the pay by working more hours. I started this stepping-stone-of-a-job the next fall at a great hospital with exceptional benefits making $6.95 per hour. I once worked 26 hours in a 24 hour day for straight pay. As it was explained to me: since I was not scheduled to work the following day those 2 hours will just be added to the day you were scheduled, understand?  That guidance counselor was wrong.  He was, however, right in steering me in that direction.

Surgical Technology has become my passion and my life. I love the patients, the stress and the life of being a surgical technologist. I would encourage you to look at your dream career and make it happen for you–Surgical Technologist or not.

Lisa L. Graham Coonrod AS, AAS, BS, CST
Lisa Graham Coonrod began her career as a nationally Certified Surgical Technologist in 1986 at the age of 19 at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Lafayette, Indiana.  In 1992 after the birth of her second son she went back to school to get her Associate of Applied Science in Surgical Technology, at which time she began teaching part-time while continuing to work as a surgical tech at St. Elizabeth’s.  She returned to school in 2000 for her Bachelor’s degree, which she earned in Career and Technical Education from Indiana State University.  After working 12 years as a Surgical Technologist, she decided to pursue her passion of teaching.  She became a fulltime instructor at Ivy Tech State College teaching Surgical Technology at the Associate degree level from 1992 to 2006.  After moving to Florida in 2008 she began as an adjunct faculty member at Suncoast Technical College and eventually became full-time and then Program Director of their Surgical Technology program.  In 2015 she was recruited by the late Dr. Pricilla Haflich to Manatee Technical College, where she is the current Program Director of Surgical Technology.

MTC offers over 50 career certificate programs. For more information, go to www.ManateeTech.edu.

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