Hello. I have been looking for Surgical Techs to work at the Cleveland Clinic. We are opening the world's largest neuro clinic next year and are working to staff it before opening the doors. Any advice on where I can find potential candidates? Or anyone here interested?
How do you all deal with this? I did an ex lap this morning and stool had flooded the cavity…I’ve since brushed my teeth, scrubbed my tongue, and I can still “remember” the smell as if I’m catching a whiff of it.
I’m dying, any advice?
Hello All,
I have recently begun my scrubbing journey and am left-handed. My right hand is chopped liver.
I've tried to find info online about how to be safer with passing suture, etc., and what I'm finding is that left-handers suffer more needle sticks and should learn to be right-handed as much as possible when scrubbing.
Are any of you left handed? Do you have any advice? I am thinking that at minimum I need to learn to pass sutures and sharps right-handed, or be at the surgeon's left instead of right as much as possible...?
I appreciate any feedback, advice, resources, etc.!
Does anyone else in nursing feel weirdly guilty for wanting medicine instead of nursing?
I’m in nursing school right now after already completing a chemistry degree, and I feel like I’m carrying around a tension I can’t talk about honestly without sounding arrogant or ungrateful.
Because the truth is, I genuinely respect nursing.
Clinical has probably been the most meaningful part of my education so far. Some of the most competent, observant, emotionally intelligent people I’ve ever met are nurses. Nursing forces you into sustained human proximity in a way I don’t think many professions do. You see people scared, vulnerable, grieving, delirious, exhausted. You learn how illness actually feels for people, not just what it looks like on paper.
At the same time, I think chemistry permanently shaped the way my brain works. And not in a “I’m secretly a genius” way. Honestly, chemistry humbled me more than anything else in my life. I struggled a lot. My GPA wasn’t amazing. I was immature, inconsistent, terrible at managing my time, and constantly felt like I was falling behind people who were smarter and more disciplined than me.
(If I were actually brilliant, I probably wouldn’t be doing a second degree trying to claw my way toward med school now lol.)
But even though I struggled, I still loved the way science made me think. I worked in research labs, ended up on a couple papers during undergrad, and realized I was capable of more than my transcript probably suggested. Chemistry trained me to think mechanistically. Everything became systems, causality, interactions, precision. You stop accepting explanations that are merely “close enough” because small inaccuracies eventually become bigger misunderstandings.
Which is honestly part of why nursing school has felt so frustrating sometimes. Not nursing itself.
Not bedside nursing. Not actual nurses. But the academic side.
Sometimes it genuinely feels like curiosity gets subtly punished if it becomes too mechanism-heavy. We’ll spend hours discussing reflections, therapeutic language, and “ways of knowing,” while physiology gets simplified to the point of actual inaccuracy because “for nursing purposes you don’t need that depth.”
At one point an instructor explained why the higher IV bag drains first by saying gravity “pulls harder” on the higher bag. And yes, obviously everyone still understood the practical point clinically. But gravity is not stronger six inches higher in a hospital room. The mechanism is hydrostatic pressure. And I KNOW how insufferable it sounds that this bothered me so much, but healthcare is literally the field where details matter. My brain genuinely struggles with inaccurate explanations because chemistry trained me to believe foundational inaccuracies create fragile understanding later.
Every time I ask deeper pharm or pathophys questions, the vibe can suddenly become:
“You’re overthinking it.”
“Focus on what the nurse does.”
And then the second people realize I’m pre-med, there’s this weird assumption that I must not really care about patients. Like wanting more depth or more scope somehow means you’re less human. But I’m scared that I won’t be fully fulfilled in a nursing role.
For example, the OR is probably my favorite place in the world. I love the intensity of it. The choreography. The anatomy. The pressure. The teamwork. The precision. I could honestly spend twelve hours there and not even notice time passing.
But I also realized I don’t think being adjacent to the decision-making would be enough for me forever. And that makes me feel terrible, and honestly question my motivations for medicine.
And I feel guilty even typing that because OR nurses are incredibly skilled and essential. This is not me saying they’re “less than.” But when I imagine spending decades only handing over the instruments instead of being the person performing the surgery, making the calls, carrying the responsibility, thinking through the anatomy and pathology in real time… something in me aches for that larger scope. Not because I think it’s more important morally. Just because I think it fits my brain better.
And sometimes in nursing spaces, wanting that feels weirdly taboo. Like the second medicine enters the conversation, people assume you must be ego-driven, too reductionist, too obsessed with status, not holistic enough.
I genuinely love patients. I love clinical. I love practical skills. I love procedures. I love the privilege of being present for deeply human moments.
I just also love mechanisms. And systems. And diagnostics. And understanding things as deeply as I possibly can. And I don’t think I’ll ever fully turn that part of my brain off.
I honestly can’t tell whether this is a normal tension for people caught somewhere between nursing and medicine, or whether I’m just romanticizing a larger scope because I’m insecure about my own path.
I’d genuinely love to hear from people who’ve felt something similar. Especially nurses, physicians, or people who transitioned between the two. Did nursing eventually feel intellectually fulfilling for you long term? Did the tension go away? Did anyone else struggle with feeling simultaneously deeply drawn to patient care while also craving more scope, depth, or responsibility?
I’m open to hearing perspectives from people who disagree with me too. I’m honestly trying to figure out whether I’m identifying something real here, or just wrestling with my own ego and insecurity. Please help me find my blind spots. TYIA!
I’ve been scrubbing for a little over two years and I’m getting out and while I want to scrub I’m a little nervous about doing it in the civilian world. I’m just wondering what doctors are like out there, if anybody in a similar situation has found it better or worse. Also, my big concern is that my time scrubbing was spent in only one specialty and I worry that’s going to work against me. Any advice would be awesome!
Have you heard of stories or know a surgeon who is obsessed with his scrub tech? When I first started my job one of my coworkers never scrubbed Ortho spine and I found out the surgeon would purposely say mean things to her and try to find ways to tell it her. It was so bad she requested to not work with him. And he would see her walk past his room and scrub out DURING a case to go to the front and request she be in his room. And then you have to typical dynamic where the everyone says this scrub and surgeon have a strange relationship. I’m curious because I started working with this surgeon no one wants to work with. He has become nicer because he knows no scrub wants to be in his room. But they started putting me with him everyday and he starts asking me questions about myself.Maybe I’m just too socially awkward but I find it weird him asking questions while he is doing surgery and saying it’s like we’re married . I started to be a bitch to him hoping it would get me out of his room. He told me he has been married too long I can’t hurt him. He tried to talk to me on my lunch break in the cafeteria. And circulators I work with have told me stuff that made me feel like I’m not crazy. ( I don’t think I’m hot stuff or the best scrub or anything. I literally try to make sure I do my job well and go home. I don’t talk during surgery unless it’s the usual people I work with.)
On June 1st I start a job as a behavioral technician at the major hospital in my area. It's the "Baker Act" unit, which in Florida is when you are involuntarily detained for about 72 hours to have an emergency evaluation.
Long story short, going to be working 3 days a week, 13 hours a day, and they help pay for school to become case manager for substance abuse/mental health.
Our attire is any set of tan scrubs. I've bought 2 sets off Amazon and both were awful fit/material. Now you can DM me if you'd rather not promote, but I'm really struggling to find a comfy pair of scrubs that aren't super expensive.
Was hoping nurses know a thing or two about this. Thanks in advance!
Hi everyone! Looking for some help with ortho.
I am a newer scrub and have been working at my hospital for about 9 months, I also did my clinicals at the same hospital. I never did any ortho in clinicals or on orientation because they have their “ortho people” but lately our hospital has been super slow and i’ve been in there for learning opportunities for at least 2 out of my 3 days. I’m just struggling learning mako totals. All the docs do it kind of the same way with their little differences. I cannot understand the steps or memorize anything. I try to take notes but the one doc is super fast and does a flip room and he’s done with 7 cases by 2 o clock sometimes. I have no time to set up and actually understand what he’s doing in the procedure. I’ve been in there learning for 4ish weeks and i’m feeling super discouraged that I don’t understand what comes next in the procedure. Any tips that helped you guys remember it faster?
Hi, I’m new to this sub!
I am a wife and soon to be mom of 3 (Fall 2026)
I am considering going back to school either while I’m pregnant or after my initial postpartum period. I spent 10 years in the medical field; pretty much anything but clinical. Front desk, medical records, scheduling etc. I have been in probably 4-5 different specialty offices over the years, my favorite being OB/GYN.
My local university states the projected outlook for this career is -1%.. not sure if that’s accurate.
So I guess my question is, for current (or past?) STs, do you recommend going into this field? As someone that has been or is in it? Do you enjoy it? It’s a huge financial decision so it’s making me a bit nervous.
I need unbiased opinions. Thank you!
So I’m doing my license renewal and got me thinking about how much of a racket the whole thing is. It used to be 60 credits over 4 years. So you only needed your meaningless AST membership for your renewal once every four years. But now it’s 30 every 2 years. CEs are the same but you have to renew your AST membership more often so they’re getting more money.
On top of that, you have to “take” tests to earn your CE which is an extra hassle.
Then there’s the cost, AST membership is 80$. Then CE pricing and now they charge you if you want a wallet card for your certification. All in all it’s over 150$ every 2 years.
My wife is a nurse and hers is *cheaper* (100) and there’s no testing involved. Just pay the fee to renew your license and you’re good to go.
It’s insane that we don’t make as much as nurses and have to pay more and go through more of a hassle to renew. Honestly makes me want to go back to the days of hospital trained staff. I know several hospitals in New Hampshire are moving to this model.
A lot of travelers be lying on their resumes. In one facility alone, I worked with three travelers with "over 20 years of experience" that had no clue what they were doing. They were dangerous to the patients and a liability to the OR. If you don't know how to plug in a Storz light/camera, you should not be traveling; if you do not know what a 3-0 Nylon is, you should not be traveling; if your only OR experience is in a surgery center, you should not be traveling in the MAIN OR. Being agency means you make the big bucks, but it also means you have your shit together and can scrub/circulate most cases (unless you mark otherwise in your skills checklist)
I have an interview coming up for an RN circulator at a foot and ankle ASC and I saw that one of the people attending is a scrub tech. What would you specifically ask a circulator? I have worked in surgery before I should mention. It has been a year tho and I honestly did not think I would return to surgery.
If i were to apply for a job in united states as a surgical technologist from pakistan what requirements would be eligible? especially asking those who are in this feild is it mandatory to be a certified surg tech or SFA?
I'm asking because at my current hospital Im starting to scrub again and will be doing general- mainly lap appe's, lap choles, hernias, ortho totals as well as arthroplasties, podiatry, cystos. I'm primarily circulating now and the last time I scrubbed was about a year and a half ago. I have about 5 months of total scrubbing experience at a Level 1 trauma hospital but almost entirely Ent although a little bit of hybrid cases mixed in with some neuro, crani's, stuff like that. I filled in a couple months ago for a general excision and although it was minor, It felt like I just picked it right back up again like I never stopped. I'd like to move more into scrubbing and less in the circulating role but still keep a decent balance to protect me physically.
A coworker and I want to travel but we want to go somewhere together first so we aren’t alone. Is there anyway to do that easy for a first contract?
Bonus if you pluck your eyelashes.
I’m a surgical technologist with over 8 years experience going on 9. Proficient in Neuro (Trauma, Crani & Spine), Ortho (Trauma, Joints, Arthroplasty, Sports), Robotics (General. GYN and Thoracic.) And every other specialty but cardiovascular. I’m currently in working as a traveler making a little bit under 10,000 a month. However, I think I’m ready to slow the pace down. I’m moving to Los Angeles, California and I have a job interview at Cedars. I’m wondering if there’s anybody here that has had experience with interviewing with this hospital and knowing what their pay is usually like for an experienced tech like me. I’m gonna be honest I’m looking for $55-$57. The pay scale is $37-$60. The job title is surgical technologist lll. I feel like for a senior position of such I should be compensated well especially if I’m gonna make a place my home.
Please share with me any experience you have with the hospital. Also, if you don’t mind saying your pay, I would love to know. You can send me a direct message if you want if you don’t feel comfortable sharing under this post.
I was working case carts/SP today because I have a pretty nasty little cold. While I was pulling an ENT set, i couldn’t help but think about how amazing it would feel to stuff an 11Fr. Frazier up my nose and suction everything. Has anyone else ever had this thought? Maybe I AM crazy!
Also any advice for head colds much appreciated 😁