About This Career

Prepares, sterilizes, installs, or cleans laboratory or healthcare equipment. May perform routine laboratory tasks and operate or inspect equipment.

This career is part of the Health Science cluster Support Services pathway.

A person in this career:

• Operates and maintains steam autoclaves, keeping records of loads completed, items in loads, and maintenance procedures performed.
• Cleans instruments to prepare them for sterilization.
• Organizes and assembles routine or specialty surgical instrument trays or other sterilized supplies, filling special requests as needed.
• Records sterilizer test results.
• Examines equipment to detect leaks, worn or loose parts, or other indications of disrepair.
• Reports defective equipment to appropriate supervisors or staff.
• Maintains records of inventory or equipment usage and orders medical instruments or supplies when inventory is low.
• Stocks crash carts or other medical supplies.
• Starts equipment and observes gauges and equipment operation to detect malfunctions and to ensure equipment is operating to prescribed standards.
• Checks sterile supplies to ensure that they are not outdated.

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

• You would often handle loads up to 50 lbs., sometimes up to 100 lbs. You will need a lot of strength at this level.
• Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
• Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
• Exposed to disease and infections more than once a month through work such as patient care, laboratory work, and sanitation control
• Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation requires being inside most of the time
• Sound and noise levels are loud and distracting
• Work in this occupation involves making repetitive motions more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves standing more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves walking or running more than one-third of the time

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

• Seeing clearly up close
• Identifying and understanding the speech of another person
• Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying objects
• Using abdominal and lower back muscles repeatedly or over time without tiring

Work Hours and Travel

• Regular working hours and limited travel