Medical Equipment Preparer Prepare, sterilize, install, or clean laboratory or healthcare equipment. May perform routine laboratory tasks and operate or inspect equipment.
Medical Equipment Preparer is Also Know as
In different settings, Medical Equipment Preparer is titled as
- Central Processing Technician (CPT)
- Central Service Technician (CST)
- Central Sterile Supply Technician (CSS Technician)
- Certified Registered Central Service Technician (CRCST)
- Instrument Technician
- Sterile Preparation Technician
- Sterile Processing and Distribution Technician (SPD Tech)
- Sterile Processing Technician (Sterile Processing Tech)
- Sterile Technician
- Sterilization Technician
Education and Training of Medical Equipment Preparer
Medical Equipment Preparer is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Medical Equipment Preparer
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
Education Required for Medical Equipment Preparer
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Medical Equipment Preparer
- Bachelor in Sterile Processing Technology/Technician
- Associate Degree Courses in Sterile Processing Technology/Technician
- Masters Degree Courses in Sterile Processing Technology/Technician
Training Required for Medical Equipment Preparer
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Medical Equipment Preparer in different industries are
- Surgical Technologists
- Endoscopy Technicians
- Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians
- Calibration Technologists and Technicians
- Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists
- Cardiovascular Technologists and Technicians
- Surgical Assistants
- Phlebotomists
- Medical Equipment Repairers
- Histotechnologists
- Radiologic Technologists and Technicians
- Neurodiagnostic Technologists
- Anesthesiologist Assistants
- Nuclear Medicine Technologists
- Diagnostic Medical Sonographers
- Ophthalmic Medical Technicians
- Pharmacy Technicians
- Histology Technicians
- Ophthalmic Medical Technologists
- Emergency Medical Technicians
What Do Medical Equipment Preparer do?
- Organize and assemble routine or specialty surgical instrument trays or other sterilized supplies, filling special requests as needed.
- Clean instruments to prepare them for sterilization.
- Operate and maintain steam autoclaves, keeping records of loads completed, items in loads, and maintenance procedures performed.
- Record sterilizer test results.
- Disinfect and sterilize equipment, such as respirators, hospital beds, or oxygen or dialysis equipment, using sterilizers, aerators, or washers.
- Start equipment and observe gauges and equipment operation to detect malfunctions and to ensure equipment is operating to prescribed standards.
- Examine equipment to detect leaks, worn or loose parts, or other indications of disrepair.
- Report defective equipment to appropriate supervisors or staff.
- Check sterile supplies to ensure that they are not outdated.
- Attend hospital in-service programs related to areas of work specialization.
- Purge wastes from equipment by connecting equipment to water sources and flushing water through systems.
- Deliver equipment to specified hospital locations or to patients' residences.
- Assist hospital staff with patient care duties, such as providing transportation or setting up traction.
- Install and set up medical equipment, using hand tools.
- Stock crash carts or other medical supplies.
- Maintain records of inventory or equipment usage and order medical instruments or supplies when inventory is low.
Qualities of Good Medical Equipment Preparer
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
Tools Used by Medical Equipment Preparer
- Aerators
- Automatic dryers
- Bar code scanners
- Bowie Dick test packs
- Chemical sterilization indicators
- Cleaning or sterilizing scrubbing brushes
- Computerized scope washers
- Desktop computers
- Equipment bar code readers
- Ethylene oxide gas sterilizers
- Gas sterilizers
- Heat-sealer machines
- Hot air sterilizers
- Laboratory glass flasks
- Medical examination protective gloves
- Ozone sterilizers
- Padded gloves
- Paracetic acid sterilizers
- Plasma gas sterilizers
- Pressure regulation monitors
- Pressure steam autoclaves
- Prevacuum sterilizers
- Protective caps
- Protective ear plugs
- Protective gowns
- Protective masks
- Protective medical aprons
- Spore strips
- Steam gravity sterilizers
- Steam high vacuum sterilizers
- Sterilizers
- Temperature monitors
- Temperature tracing and recording thermometers
- Ultrasonic cleaners
- Washer sterilizers
Technology Skills required for Medical Equipment Preparer
- Calendar software
- Database software
- eClinicalWorks EHR software
- Email software
- Inventory tracking software
- Kronos Workforce Timekeeper
- McKesson ANSOS One-Staff
- MEDITECH software
- MEDITECH Supply Chain Management
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft SharePoint
- Microsoft SharePoint Server
- Microsoft Word
- Pyxis MedStation software
- Spreadsheet software
- Word processing software