Education/orientation for Scrub Techs

[ornurse13080]

What does the training/orientation consist of for scrub techs in your facility?

How long does the orientation last?

For our new nurses, we assign a preceptor that has gone through the facility's preceptor course and is compensated for precepting nurses upon completion of the preceptor course.

Is there something like this for the scrub techs at your facility? Some scrub techs feel they should be compensated for their time in helping orient the new scrub techs, unfortunately our facility does not currently do so.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

There is absolutely zero compensation for anyone who precepts in my facility. Bit of contention between staff and management there as the rest of the facility is paid a $1/hour differential for precepting.

Many orientees may not even be with the same person twice in one week, let alone consistently. Not great for the orientees because they may learn one way to do things one day and then be told they learned it all wrong the next day because the two they have worked with have differing routines.

But, with that said, the way the facility orients STs is for 12 weeks, they rotate through ortho, general/vascular, neuro, urology, plastics, ENT, and, if cases are scheduled during their orientation, a little gyn, dental, eyes (these specialties are primarily done at other sites in the organization), and observation in cardiac. Our cardiac and ortho teams are closed teams who do not rotate to other specialties, so these are the least focused on specialties unless they've been hired for them. Staff routinely rotate through the other specialties.

[Loves2scrub]

The scrub tech orientation in our OR is 12 weeks. We do cardiothoracic cases only. If the tech has no cardiac experience, the orientation period may be extended. They are typically assigned to one main preceptor and one back up preceptor. Our facility currently does not offer a differential for precepting, but did in the past. When the differential was offered, it was for RN's only. I was a tech at the time, and i admit it did hurt my feelings a little that the differential was not extended to the technicians.

[ornurse13080]

Thanks for your responses.

The facility I work for has been working on getting preceptor pay for scrub techs for the last 2yrs, just not something the higher ups have given into...yet anyway.

I see both sides though. Before working in healthcare, I always had to train people and never expected additional pay. Also, the education for scrub techs is highly specialized, whereas nursing programs are an overview of all specialities in which the student nurses are lucky to get 1 4-8hr day in the OR during there whole program so, the training for the nurses for specialities is all on the job.

Like the nurses, I'm sure the scrub techs don't get everything they need out of their program to fully prepare them for the facility that hires them, but I'm thinking they're probably more prepared compared to the nurses coming in.

In the same token, the scrub techs end up doing a lot of teaching to not only the scrub techs, but also the nurses, with the exception of the charting and the other related matters that are strictly the nurses responsibility.