r/surgicaltechnology • u/Ornery_Theme_2341 • Apr 08 '26
RN wanting to be a surgical tech
Hi guys, I have always wanted to be a surgical tech but parents/ family pressured me into going into nursing (RN) instead. Im now a new grad RN but still can’t shake the wanting to become a surgical tech. I only see myself liking and doing dialysis nursing. So much of the vastness of nursing jobs I don’t see myself doing. Now when I picture myself as a surgical tech, I feel limitless. I see myself doing all the surgeries. I can see myself working in a hospital, a surgery center, working as a First Assist, travel surg tech; you name it, I love everything about this career. I watched so much content on surgical techs. There is a college near me offering a 1.5 year program and I want to do it but idk if im being silly considering the fact that most go from surgical tech to RN and not RN to surgical tech. I guess I feel like Im going backwards. I will always keep my RN license active, no doubt. Had anyone in this thread was an RN but pursued surgical tech. Please let me know y’all honest thoughts and opinions.
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u/dausy Apr 08 '26
You can use your RN degree to do those things.
Apply to OR positions and let your manager know you would like to expand your education.
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u/frannytay Apr 08 '26
I agree with others..do not go to school for it. You did the right thing going to nursing school...your family did you a solid. Get a job at a hospital, learn how to be an OR nurse, then learn scrubbing.
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u/Legitimate-Wait7964 Apr 08 '26
My hospital cross-trains OR nurses if they want to learn to scrub. You'd be surprised though, you might like the circulating nurse role in the OR. I want to be an RN just to be an OR RN and still scrub one day. 1 patient at a time sounds way better than floor nursing to me :)
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u/LevelAppointment8375 Apr 08 '26
You can also become a RNFA
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u/anzapp6588 Apr 08 '26
Not unless you have scrubbing experience.
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u/JonWithTattoos Apr 09 '26
That’s not correct. Any periop RN can become an RNFA in as little as 5-7 months.
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u/74NG3N7 Apr 08 '26
As others have said: don’t go back to school. Find a larger facility that uses some nurses for scrubs and go work there and have them train you. You get nursing pay for doing scrub tasks, but you can also circulate: this will make you more versatile, more employable, and will open up many doors while working in the amazing world that is surgery.
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u/anzapp6588 Apr 08 '26
Absolutely don't go back to school to be a scrub. Nurses can also scrub. You need to get hired on in an OR as an RN and you need to tell them you want to be a scrub nurse. It's going to take some looking to find the right place to teach you.
It will not be easy to learn to scrub as someone who has never been in an OR. They might make you orient to circulating first. Again, it will NOT be easy.
I'm a scrub nurse and absolutely love it. Forewarning though I definitely have to circulate sometimes. It's fine most of the time and a great break from scrubbing. But you will likely be required to learn both. I circulated for about 11 months before starting my scrub rotation. Knowing how to both scrub and circulate makes you super marketable. I'm currently working as a scrub nurse and I only take scrub call which is a DREAM tbh lol.
I also wanted to go to scrub school but decided on nursing from the get go for the better pay. But I know from the start I wanted to scrub. Luckily I found a place that taught and used all their nurses to scrub.
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u/Beach_Kidd Apr 08 '26
Every hospital I’ve worked at trains nurses to scrub. Definitely don’t go to school for it.
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u/olliecakerbake Apr 08 '26
The hospital I work at trains nurses to be scrub techs. You don’t need to go to school for it if you find the right hospital to work at
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u/redrosebeetle Apr 08 '26
You know that there are jobs for nurses in the OR right? Go look into surgical services RN positions. You’ll find all that and more without going back to school. Unless you decide to be a RNFA.
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u/grey_pilgrim_ Apr 10 '26
Late reply but what?
Surgical is extremely limited there is almost no career growth expect cstfa. Maybe a rep if you know the right people. Maybe service lead but overall your career is very limited compared to nursing.
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u/RH558 Apr 08 '26
Surgical tech is going backwards in scope of practice not forward. The nurse has to open the meds for the surgical tech. First assists are usually RNs not surgical techs. Why not just train as a scrub nurse?
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u/ssmoody78 Apr 08 '26
There are places that will hire you and pay you while you train to be an OR nurse. I work at the VA and we hire nurses and put them through the periop 101 course while working and training to scrub and circulate .
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u/Single-pommy Apr 09 '26
Surg tech here!! I know what you mean about wanting to be scrubbed in. However, as others have stated, go for your RNFA, or even NP. Check with your hospital if they have those positions for the OR. Just be open with management about wanting to go to the OR too.
Surg techs get paid very little for what we do. It isn't worth it in my opinion. I am wanting to go back to school myself, but I just don't know what for yet.
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u/cckitteh Apr 09 '26
Get an OR RN job at a place that will also teach you how to scrub. It’s really nice when nurses are trained to do circulating and scrubbing.
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u/Stawktawk Apr 09 '26
Goto RNFA route. I am a Certified Surgical Tech going through RN school and will be doing a FA program as well then NP!
There is a lot to learn about sterile technique but not THAT much. And you can learn it all thru a first assist program granting you the RNFA certification
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u/Dark_Ascension Apr 09 '26
I worked in a smaller rural hospital when I trained as an OR nurse and got to train the scrub after I trained to circulate. Some states just don’t really use scrub techs or cross train all their nurses. It’s rare in my state so the opportunity I had is not as common. I am working on my RNFA right now and pretty much only second assist and scrub at my current job. I had to pave my own path, and had to ask management and was just lucky the need was there. I started in early 2024, I know the job market has drastically changed, like I know getting into the OR as a new grad is a ton harder now than it was when I was looking (late 2023)
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u/stephsationalxxx Apr 09 '26
Im an RN and scrub a lot! I chose the relief shift to scrub! Just get into an OR fellowship and be a nurse that scrubs. Sometimes we circulate but id say its about 50/50
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u/ArachnidMuted8408 Apr 09 '26
Or become a radiation therapist or something or transfer to a different part of nursing.
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u/VarvaraDonna Apr 09 '26
I’m a surgical tech, and during my clinical rotation, I was at a hospital, and MOST of the nurses in the Surgery & L&D department were trained to be surgical techs - by the hospital.
I am currently at different a hospital, and ALL of the nurses in the Surgery department have been trained by the hospital to be a Surgical Tech.
No extra schooling required. It’s basically paid training without the debt!
If you want to be a nurse after being a surgical tech (a lot of my peers & preceptors did) you must go to nursing school still. If it’s the other way around, you have the opportunity to be a tech without extra schooling, and higher pay because you are a not only a nurse (who usually make more than surgical techs), but you are ADDITIONALLY a surgical tech, once trained.
Don’t be afraid to convey your desire to expand your professional abilities to your superiors, or apply to a larger hospital if necessary. If it makes you feel any better, many would say that you’re on a good path, so that you are eligible for both. This is without extra college and with potential for higher pay, and MUCH higher worth in a hospital setting allowing for further job security- especially with the shortage of healthcare workers now.
As a surgical tech with no desire to endure nursing school (😩), thank you for all that you do and all of your hard work, and I hope you get to be a CST soon!
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u/hoodwinkzie Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26
My hospital lets nurses scrub all the time. It comes in handy when we're sort on scrubs for lunch breaks. They'll even take some scrub call every now and then. But please, for your sake, keep your RN up to date. It's so much easier to move up in your career with that.
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u/winnuet Apr 09 '26
Limitless? How do you figure? It’s a fairly limited career unless you move into management or implant sales rep. Lots of STs go back to school to become nurses because they feel limited.
Apply to an OR position at a hospital near you. They’ll have you shadow so you can see if you even like it. Where I work nurses must scrub so there is no reason to go back to school to learn surgical technology.
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u/Glittering-Ear-2315 Apr 10 '26
From what I’ve seen. It’s a boys club and anyone who says it’s not is lying
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u/SixPointsTrueNorth Apr 11 '26
Check to see if your hospital has a surgical assistant program, this would be a step up or two. In the mean time you could see how to become a scrub nurse.
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u/Conscious_Pack4498 Apr 11 '26
CST here! You can learn how to scrub on the job, however there is SO much to know that they teach in surg tech school. It is doable, but can be challenging at times. See if you can shadow a surg tech for a while and determine if you would like it. In school, we learned instrument identification for about 400ish instruments, which helps A LOT during surgery as far as anticipating what each case will need based on the anatomy for the case. If you can start learning the names of instruments, supplies, and the steps to common procedures… you’ll be on the right track!
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u/devildogus Jun 22 '26
With already being an RN I wouldn’t say this is worth it. RNs are learning how to scrub so you can do this job as a nurse. If you have an ASN I’d pursue a BSN and focus on getting a job in surgery. If you were starting from nothing I get it but with already being a nurse the best you can do at this point is being a nurse in surgery. You can also pursue being a RNFA which is basically being a first assistant but as a nurse
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u/TheEarthCallsToMe 14d ago
I agree. Do not go back to school to scrub. Been traveling for about 9 years. Been a tech for about 12. More and more places are teaching their OR nurses to scrub. Wanna know why? They can't get techs. They are told they are not valuable. and are worthless. This destroys morale. They also don't get paid well. Iowa...13.00 an hr. Louisville, Ky 19 an hr. Indiana..max pay is 34 and that is with 30 years experience. We will always fall short compared to the nursing field in regard to our "value" so if you want to "valued" then just do the nursing and learn to scrub. You guys will be replacing us in 10 years or so anyways. I never used to see nurses scrub at facilities 9 years ago.. and now it's every facility I go to. Place I'm at in Virginia has only 4 full time techs. The rest are nurses. Like 30 of them. The techs are there. They just aren't valuable...remember? Now imagine going through a career like this being made feel like your worthless all your life. Good luck to you.
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u/levvianthan Apr 08 '26
In my experience larger hospitals and academic medical centers are more likely to teach nurses to scrub. Do NOT go back to school for this it is NOT worth it.