It wouldnt let me share this but to all my fellow CST/CSFAs. Thank a Surgical Technologist this week. Because for most every surgical procedure that happens in this country (roughly 50 million a year) (or 137,000 a day) there was an ST that: - helped sterilize the weird tools, weird trays full of instruments, and various weird supplies with which we use to fix you (lowering your risk of life threatening infection). - gathered all the strange stuff needed to perform your surgery from a big room full of strange things from our memories and experience in the OR so that your surgery can be done (vital task - if everything that could variably be needed is not in the OR for your surgery, this could mean more time on the table for you, which adds risk in many ways, not to mention financial costs to you the patient... you are billed for every minute you are in the OR) - prepared the operating room equipment wise (which means rolling in procedure-specific equipment, such as microscopes, lasers, heavy/specialized OR tables, video towers, supply carts, cautery generators, and any other of a hundred various devices and gadgets that humankind has invented to perform modern surgery) (also a vital step, for the same reasons as above, and if a tech is not doing their job or being lazy or unfocused or is inexperienced, this might not be available, or might not even be in working order, and you are laying on the OR table while the team scrambles.) - opened all the sterilized items using sterile technique or, in a fashion that is most likely to not allow any bacteria/viruses/prions etc. to be unintentionally introduced onto the items that will be inside your body and your blood stream. - scrubbed in with chemical scrub brushes or chemical surgical grade hand sanitizer and using care not to contaminate the hands and arms (to not touch anything at all), enters the OR and carefully dons a sterile gown and gloves and proceeds to take the pile of stuff that has been opened, and organizes it into an orderly, cohesive setup that is most effective in performing your surgery. (This most often happens using a stainless steel rectangular rolling table and 1 or 2 mayo stands which are smaller, taller table surfaces on which we place the instrumentation most critical.) (We do this in such a fashion that no part of any of these things used on your body has touched any surface whatsoever that is non-sterile - if we see something be contaminated, or even so much as think something might have been contaminated, we throw it out and start over, thats an idea of how important it is. Our little mantra is, when in doubt, throw it out) - acted autonomously of the surgeon, as well as dependantly, in delivering your surgical care. (This is the part where most people guess at what we do in saying things like, oh so you just pass the instruments or oh youre the one that passes the scalpel when the surgeon says scalpel) A small snapshot of the things we do includes: We retract your body. We provide opposite tension to the tissues on which the surgeon is working, with our hands and/or tools. In some cases, the wrong move could mean you are suddenly bleeding profusely. And along with suctioning, retracting ensures that the field of view is unobstructed, which allows for good expedient work to be done. If the surgical technologist is unskilled or doesnt know anatomy, your life is very much at risk. Counting certain items such as sponges, instruments, knife blades, suture needles, cautery tips, hypodermic needles, small things that could be lost inside of you, before - during - and after your surgery. We constantly monitor these items as we are in charge of ensuring that not a single item is ever retained inside the body of one of our patients. We position and cauterize and cut and staple and suture and drive and sponge and follow and clamp and hold and clean and wipe and pass and open and calibrate and operate camera and label medication. So - You get the point. Your life is quite literally in our hands. The level of focus, forethought, thought and precision to which we dedicate ourselves is ABOVE ALL else for our patients well being and is the very core of our passion. All of the above, as well as commitment to lifelong learning, protecting you with all of our senses and experience, assisting the surgeon, and advocating for you while you are voiceless and asleep on the operating room table are just a small few things that we do in our profession, and things we take with somewhat of a militant seriousness - and we do it all for you, our patient. That is who we are, we are Surgical Technologists. The surgical technologist motto: Aeger Primo (The Patient First) I salute each and every one of you in light of National Surgical Technologist Week, for the good work you are doing in the trenchesevery day for these strangers that roll into our rooms. Keep advocating and educating people about what we do. To the student - never compromise! Thank you for your hard work in getting in to this field, and for your future in the practice of surgical technology. Michael Joshua Templeton, CST
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 01:06:27 +0000
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