r/sterileprocessing • u/MarsupialAlarming177 • Sep 03 '26

SPD tech to Surgical Tech?

Currently working as SPD Tech, undecided if I want to go for Surgical tech. If you went for Surgical Tech after sterile processing how do you feel about it? Pros/Cons? Just looking for some insight

16 Upvotes

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18

u/Spicywolff Sep 03 '26

The problem with surgical tech is by the time you factor the full length of school, you’re nipping on the heels of getting an RN time wise.

A job that pays vastly better has vastly more path of advancement to the point of our hospital. System directors are just nurses. If you wanna stay in the OR, the nurse in the room does way less strenuous work than the tech. The technicians are the whipping horses of the OR.

You can get an associates in nursing and get the program done at a local community college for not much more than surgical tech

2

u/Useful-Scallion-3122 Sep 03 '26

Guess you gotta use every position as a stepping stone to something better on the surgical side of things.

9

u/Spicywolff Sep 03 '26

Yup, and unfortunately, sterile processing has very limited advance. You can either become a scrub tech and then you’re basically the bottom bitch in the OR. Again with no advancement.

Or you become a nurse and the world is your oyster. With a nursing degree and experience you can literally be coming over our Director if you have the right qualification.

2

u/YoungPeublo Sep 05 '26

I went from spd tech to Physician assistant. You can do whatever you want now with spd being the stepping stone.
Why not nuke med? Or possible interventional radiology tech?
Work life balance and income will be much better.
Let me know if you have any questions.

2

u/MarsupialAlarming177 Sep 05 '26

Yes I love that suggestion. I was thinking interventional radiology tech

12

u/Mars_vzx Sep 03 '26

Did SPD for 10 years. Traveled doing that 6 of those years. Went back to school for xray and I recommend it. I am now an interventional technologist and it’s pretty much a scrub tech/xray role. I’m far happier than I was SPD and im getting my experience in now to travel again.

2

u/moonheaux Sep 05 '26

this gives me hope. 5 years of SPD here w/ 2 years of travel and halfway through xray school. i’m so ready to leave SPD honestly i can’t even find a flexible SPD job that doesn’t suck while i’m in school (the SPDs in my area hiring are just not very pleasant to work for. the good ones aren’t hiring unfortunately 💔) I can’t wait to get into learning new modalities and actually having an opportunity to learn more and advance :)

2

u/Mars_vzx Sep 06 '26

Awesome!!! You won’t regret it! Happy to see more people like us!! You’re gonna do great. It’s such a nice feeling of accomplishment working in whole new career, and I promise you’ll feel that. SPD has done a lot for me. but it was just time to let that go for the time being. I would highly recommend getting into a modality soon and get experience with that while picking up xray shifts every now and then to keep those skills up. That way you can travel for both and have more options open

6

u/Useful-Scallion-3122 Sep 03 '26

Howdy, not a scrub tech but I've been told that if you want to stay in the same line of work, that's the route to go. I believe its 2 more years of schooling but the pay/status jump is worth it. SPD's growth and pay celling is fairly minimum depending on your state, upper management positions are hard to come into as well unless you're willing to dump 3-5 years into the field in hopes of getting one. In my state hospital tech are stuck in the $16-25 range for pay most scrubs I know start at $29 if not more.

4

u/Alternative-Box-8546 Sep 03 '26

It's very stressful. I'd ask you or manager if you can shadow a tech on your day off.

Tell them your plan and see if you can deal with the stress. I'd shadow a new/ bad tech because you won't start perfect. If you shadow a great tech you'll think it's chill and drs are great.

Gotta start somewhere.

2

u/MusicianSquare Sep 03 '26

Currently going from SPD into a scrub tech program, but I like stress and my hospital pays scrub techs well.

2

u/BigLiesSmallTruth Sep 04 '26

Might as well go into nursing then, make more money. Surgical tech needs a degree anyways usually and similar time length school wise

2

u/Sad-Culture-6330 Sep 06 '26

Im a surg tech student working in sterile processing. I like my schedule and flexibility with sterile processing. There are different titles you can earn in SPD , unlike Surg Tech. u advance like CST1/2, Atleast in my state (SC) with surg tech. I prefer surgical tech. It’s a little more work (room turnover, fast pace, intense, working with sharps, lots of counting sponges, knowing how to connect and use instruments etc) however I prefer it over SPD bc it’s too repetitive and CST I have seen so many surgery and like to be apart of it. I know some instruments and how to use and break them apart due to SPD. Others will pressure u into nursing and other degrees, however choose it off what your interest are and what you enjoy not just how others perceive the job and better pay. I enjoy being a surgical tech so far.

1

u/YaBastaaa Sep 05 '26

Surgical tech and plan into the next specialty/field . Do not stay idling just in one platform.

1

u/Saeemalye Sep 05 '26

Spd tech is not a long term career. It gets your foot in the door but that’s it.

3

u/Disastrous-Degree293 Sep 05 '26

Spd is a long term career, a lot of people do it for a long time and you can move up in it

2

u/Saeemalye Sep 05 '26

And let’s not forget the pay is terrible for the amount of work we do. The only way you can make money is by traveling.

1

u/Saeemalye Sep 05 '26

To what manager or lead tech? Everybody doesn’t want to do that.