Also called: Central Sterile Technician, Medical Equipment Preparer
Cleans, inspects, sterilizes, and packs every surgical instrument a hospital uses.
Works in the hospital basement: scrubs instruments from the morning's surgeries, inspects them under magnification, assembles them into trays of 100+ tools, and runs the giant steam sterilizers. No sterile processing, no surgery.
BLS May 2024 (medical equipment preparers).
Certificate, about 0 years after high school. High school diploma plus a short certificate course and certification (CRCST).
Ways in: Certification, On-the-job training. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Sterile Processing (certificate).
Growing faster than average (about 5% over 10 years).
Medium risk for 10 years. Washers and tracking software automate cleaning and record keeping; inspecting and assembling instrument trays stays manual for now.
Classes: Biology, Chemistry, Health science CTE, Medical terminology.
Official data: O*NET occupation 31-9093.
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