Surgical Technology: A Cutting-Edge Career

By Marty Nemko

Just a high school diploma plus a one-year program and you can play a role in the life-and-death drama of the operating room. The surgical technologist preps the patient (I remember having my chest shaved before my appendectomy. Not fun.), provides emotional support (I definitely needed that), and prepares surgical tools and machines in the operating room. During the operation, when the surgeon calls "Sutures! Clamp! Retractor!," those things they yell for on ER, the surgical technologist is one being yelled at. Sometimes, you even get the last word: you get to stitch up the patient.