cristinak

Well gee Carcha.. I didnt realize we (CST's) were that low on your totem pole! I hate to be the bearer of bad news but, CST's are here to stay and sorry if you dont like that.. You know you could always go work in a rest home.. you will have your multi skilled nurses capable of mulit tasking.. or you could just go work somewhere else in the hospital.. normally i am not rude on my posts, but your attitude toward CST's is not needed. we are there to do a job that is important or they wouldnt even have a career for it.

i just want to make sure that when i do graduate, i wont find any hostility as soon as i walk in the door to a job interview.. I want to be treated fairly based on my personality and my skills as a ST. I dont want people to judge me based on my career. I could and my be the best ST that comes out of my class but if people or already aggrevated at even the thought of an ST, then I really have no chance at making a good working atmosphere for myself.. what to do ?

I used to be a CNA I worked at one facility and I really liked it, I worked the midnight shift so most of them were sleeping, but I developed great friendships, but the hardest thing was when the residents passed away, and you had made that special friendship. but i do know what you mean about never having any supplies on hand, and the residets being mean to you, I had one resident that beat me down the floor i had bruises all over my back and neck, and the charge nurse did nothing.. but play back the tape and watch it over and over agian w/ all the nurses on duty. and i couldnt hit back because i would have gotten fired.. i grabbed her arm to make her stop hitting me so i could get up and i got in trouble for that.. .. then i had one lady that body tackled me to the ground. she liked to take the charts off the nursing station desk.. so i had to distract her to get it back and when i walked away.. Bam to the floor i went.. and that was on my first day there.. lol. but after that we were good friends..

well i have a question.. i know this is a debate about circulating and such, but i wanted to know outside of the OR do some RN's or other OR staff have the same "attitude" toward the ST's. or is it just in the OR theater? I mean if its also outside of the OR that cant make for a very healthy work enviroment, can it??

i myself had this problem, but i decided to go to Surgical Tech school, yes its a year long which isnt really bad, but I like a challenge that the OR would give me, I am sure being an LPN is very challenging in its self. my aunt is an LPN she says it can be stressful at times and that she would have like to do the surg. tech school if she knew it was available at the time she took her classes. I guess its just really a matter of preference. I think being a surgical tech will be rewarding in its self, you get to help so many people everyday, and you get to learn new things along the way. I myself like the operations, i like to look at all that gross stuff as my husband says! I guess your best thing to do would be to talk to an lpn and a surgical tech and get the pros and cons of the jobs and then make your decision. if you want to talk to some surgical techs there is a post for them at http://www.ast.org the link is under AST discussion. These people are very friendly and helped me make my decision to go into surgical tech school.. good luck and happy decision making.

stevierae thanks for your response.. I am sorry if I may have touched a nerve w/ anyone as Iwasnt meaning to.. Now from what I have been told from another posting webpage. that in Ohio ( i live on the border of Oh and Ky) that the CST's do not have a specific scope of practice.. agian i repeat this is what i have been told, i have not checked this out personally. If I am asked to do something that I am not familiar with or I do not feel comfortable doing then I am not going to do it, I know that I can proabably get ripped for it later, but the patient is much more important . Now as far as patient assessment, i havent gotten that far along in my studies to know if we are even trained in that area. but I will always let the RN do her job and assist where needed. and trust me if someone says take a break then i am out the door before she/he can finish telling me!!

I have been reading this very long thread and I would like to make a comment if I may, please no yelling, screamin, hollerin, throwing a temper trantum or anything with what i have to say!! :rotfl: Being a CST student ( i know a cst student posting here. the nerve of me!:chuckle) I am very interested in how my role in the OR is or will be perceived by others of the medical profession. I know that I am the low man on the totem pole in the OR and I know that just by reading these post some people do not see the need for us, but is the CSt profession as a whole really that bad of a deal, I would think that the Rn's would like having someone to help you when needed and someone to prep and clean the OR. From working in hopsitals I see the nurses running around doing 9 million other things. Whats wrong with having someone trained to do just this and other roles in the OR, I personally would not want to give meds to a patient first of all i am not comfortable doing that unless i have training and then if there is a rn there. please be my guest. Now i would pass an RN the meds if needed or whatever they wanted me to do, I decided to go into this profession because of what it consisted of, I get to be there in the action and learn about stuff that I didnt know about, I love to learn new things and if an RN wants to teach me stuff then great but I am not gonna take over thier job and run them out of the OR. I mean are CST that bad or a job or are the RN's just having a really bad day!! Agian this is just my ramblings and i am sure no one cares but i thought you would like to read my opinion. Thanks for reading.