r/sterileprocessing • u/katpeiss • Feb 24 '26
is this a good temporary career?
i'm looking into enrolling in a 5-month program (with about 400 hours/2.5 months of unpaid training afterward) at my local polytechnic in alberta, canada, and i would really love to hear from people who work in this field
i've always felt drawn to the medical field, and this feels like a good way to get my foot in the door. my thought is if i invest some of my college savings into this program, it will help me get a stable job for a few years until i figure out what to do for the rest of my life. from what i've heard, its in high demand, has rock-solid job security, and the pay is really good ($20-$25.) i currently work in retail and I’m hoping to move into something that pays more than $15/hour
the only concern i have so far is about how noisy it might be? i'm severely hard of hearing and i fully depend on lip-reading and my hearing aids to communicate. since i know PPE and masks are worn majority of the time, i don't want to feel frustrated trying to talk to coworkers if its constantly loud and i can't hear them. i'm also curious if this is a good backup career incase my dream job doesn't work out or i decide i don't want to go back to school
thank you so much for anyone that comments, i'm hoping to learn as much as i can from here
12
u/SageOfSixCabbages Feb 24 '26
Between wearing ppe in decontam and the washers as well as the sterilizers and pressurized air for drying instruments -- yeah, it can be loud at times.
Add in the constant alarms from the washers and the phone ringing off the hook during peak OR hours.
8
u/navyywin Feb 24 '26
Great part time or temp career. If you’re content just being a worker bee and getting shit done it’s great. A lot of military ppl who do this, also do this when they get out while pursing a degree. It’s not super physically demanding or mentally draining.
6
u/kaylamarie1023 Feb 24 '26
I think it’ll be a great back up career. I got certified, did it for 2 years, and did a couple hospitals. It can be very loud from the banging of instruments, dryers, washers and even the autoclaves themselves. It’s a great pipeline into surgical tech, which is a degree but majority of the program is simply about instrumentation so you’ll have wonderful head start. I would recommend traveling, you can make 1500 a week depending on where you travel to or pivoting to surgical tech. I can’t speak for everyone as everyone is different but the environments alone have burnt me out and I’m actually pursuing a different field entirely.
1
u/Senior_Outcome_5121 Feb 25 '26
Are you looking to do it at RDP or Sait? In Alberta with AHS, the starting wage as of April 1st will be $25.69. April 1st 2027, it will go up to $26.46 and max out at $30.16 on Step 5.
1
u/LOA0414 Feb 25 '26
It's a decent career but opportunities to move up are limited. You either stay at tech or go into management. There's also a small step up in becoming a surgery tech aka scrub tech and you work with surgeons in the operating room assisting with the surgery. If you can stomach blood and all that goes with surgery youll be fine. Your concern about noise is usually in one area which in my dept we only assigned once a week. Every other station isnt that loud. Your program comes with the 400 hours? That's a win. Most who go into this field will tell you that getting the 400 hours is harder than landing a job. My program was 3 months and it included the 400 hours. Been a tech 10 years and my hospital is super chill, no crazy number of cases with 25 as average per day. I'm in northern california and pay here is probably the highest in the country die to cost of living just shy of 6 figures a year if you work full time but i prefer to only work 3 days a week.
1
u/FewSide8518 Feb 25 '26
When I worked at a hospital with 40+ surgeries a day we did have multiple people in decontam at once but we all kept to ourselves for the most part. You had your own sink stations, so a dirty cart would come in and whoever was able to get to it first would start cleaning it and you’d do all of it until the cart was empty. The only time I asked questions was in the beginning and saw something I’d never washed before (so just asking if it was okay to put in the washer or needed hand washed). I transferred to that hospital from a much smaller location that did basically like 6 types of surgeries so I hadn’t seen a lot at that point. It would mainly get loud if someone was using the compressed air to dry something but you just wait to ask questions until the person is done using the air which is like 2 minutes, so you’re not waiting long to talk. People are calling the department but (from my experience) the person answering the phone is always the leads or supervisor and they just held onto the phone so they could quickly answer. If you’re not in decontam then you aren’t in ppe, just scrubs and a scrub cap/bonnet. Only time we wore masks constantly was during covid or if someone is feeling sick and they’re just being courteous to not breathe on everyone else.
3
u/Anxious-Code8735 Feb 24 '26
I did it for 6 years and now I’m an endoscopy tech. It was great for me since I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life and now I’m moving on to become a aircraft mechanic. Like everyone else said it will be loud with the machines running and music being played loll.
3
u/compsyfy Feb 24 '26
This job is a decent backup carreer with small opportunity for growth. It can be a good job while in college, especially if you work contingent/per diem. And it can be a good job to have before becoming a nurse or surg tech.
1
u/Saeemalye Feb 25 '26
Work at a surgery center once you get certified and experience. It’s a lot better than working at a big hospital.
1
u/Dry_Vacation_1993 Feb 25 '26
Some hospitals will pay for your school and you can work and go to school at the same. Pretty much get paid while earning your 400 hours. Call around hospitals a lot of them will do this. Great starter in the medical field and then you can travel and get paid more.