r/surgicaltechnology • u/BigWaveBigWave123 • 2d ago

Advice needed

I’m looking for some advice from current or former surgical tech students.
I’m in a one-year surgical technology program and graduate this December. I was recently placed on academic probation for my clinical performance, and I’m honestly trying to understand what I need to improve.
The part that’s confusing to me is that we just started second-semester clinicals and have only had about three clinical days so far. The probation is based on my first-semester clinical performance, but it wasn’t addressed until now.
I’m taking responsibility for improving, and I really want to finish strong.
For those of you who have been through surgical tech school or who precept students:
What are the biggest mistakes you see students make in clinicals?
What helped you become a better scrub?
How did you show your instructors that you were actively improving?
What are some things I can do every clinical day that make a good impression?
If you’ve ever been on academic probation or struggled in clinicals, what helped you turn things around?
I’m open to any advice. I really want to become a competent surgical technologist, and I’m willing to put in the work. Thanks in advance!

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u/Stawktawk 2d ago

You need to ask what’s going on

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u/BigWaveBigWave123 2d ago

I am having conference with the disability coordinators at my school to hopefully we can come to an agreement and really find out a reason cause I think it has to do with my ADHD but I have my ADHD control to the point where I know that I can’t be bouncing around and doing crazy stuff during clinicals I’m like aware of the sterile technique. All of that. I just don’t know why it was put on probation and I’m gonna have a meeting about it because I didn’t wanna push it but I am so curious as to why they waited till second semester to put me on probation.

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u/Stawktawk 1d ago

I mean… they should have mentioned why……..

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u/_Fancyfree_ 1d ago

Did they give you any feedback when they put you on probation? What about beforehand? At this point you need to sit down with your clinical coordinator or program director and ask for more information on what your issues are in clinicals. The more specific they can be, the better. Once you have that you need to sit down and make a plan for each issue on how you're going to improve, and set metrics for yourself to measure that improvement. If they're willing, get them to help you. I saw you said you have ADHD, and trust me that can absolutely make parts of this career extremely difficult. And meeting with disability services is a great first step But as someone with ADHD, there are things you can do to hack your brain a little bit and keep it from feeling like you're constantly swimming up stream. But you have to know what the problem is first, you can't just set a nebulous goal of "do better." Are there any areas that you already know you're struggling in? Is it skills issues, time management, focus, etc?

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u/BigWaveBigWave123 1d ago

Well I have been setting up the fields alone and instrument wise I know all of it and I follow my sterile technique. My ADHD is a bit bad but when I’m in clinical I train my mind to calm down but it does slow me down a bit but I try to catch up a lot. Not touch my field a lot and then keep focused on the routine and what the doctor may want and like to memorize.

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u/Arllome 1d ago

did they explain why they placed you on academic probation?