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What They Do

Sterile processing technicians receive reusable equipment and supplies after they've been used in patient care. They'll separate items by type, disassembling them if necessary for thorough cleaning. If any items are broken or damaged, the technician disposes of them safely. Most items must be physically cleaned using equipment similar to a professional dishwashing machine, then sterilized in a pressurized steamer called an autoclave. Processing technicians also act as storekeepers, maintaining inventory records of their equipment and supplies. They organize orders for specific procedures or surgeons, arranging customized trays of instruments, equipment and supplies and then sending them out to the appropriate department.

In a restaurant, chefs rely on automatic dishwashers to provide a steady supply of clean, sanitized dishes and utensils. In the more demanding world of hospitals and clinics, sterile processing technicians play a similar role in sterilizing instruments and equipment for physicians, surgeons, nurses and other caregivers. It's meticulous work requiring a high level of attention to detail.

Pay Scale

In its May 2012 figures, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an average wage of $15.51 for sterile processing technicians and other medical equipment preparers, or $32,360 per year. Actual wages spanned a relatively broad wage. At the entry level, the lowest-paid 10 percent of equipment preparers earned up to $21,200 per year, or $10.19 per hour. The top 10 percent earned $45,630 or more, or $21.94 per hour. The median or mid-point wage was $14.82 per hour, or $30,820 per year.

In a restaurant, chefs rely on automatic dishwashers to provide a steady supply of clean, sanitized dishes and utensils. In the more demanding world of hospitals and clinics, sterile processing technicians play a similar role in sterilizing instruments and equipment for physicians, surgeons, nurses and other caregivers. It's meticulous work requiring a high level of attention to detail.

Variables

Wages for medical equipment preparers varied widely by geographic location and workplace. Technicians in Massachussetts enjoyed the country's highest wages, at an average of $40,300 per year. Alaska, Nevada, Hawaii and California also offered above-average wages. At the opposite end of the scale, Alabama's equipment preparers were the country's lowest-paid at $24,640 per year. General hospitals were the most common workplace, paying an average of $32,430. Specialty hospitals paid an average of $36,320, while outpatient clinics paid an average of $34,530.

In a restaurant, chefs rely on automatic dishwashers to provide a steady supply of clean, sanitized dishes and utensils. In the more demanding world of hospitals and clinics, sterile processing technicians play a similar role in sterilizing instruments and equipment for physicians, surgeons, nurses and other caregivers. It's meticulous work requiring a high level of attention to detail.

Career

Most sterile processing technicians learn their profession through on-the-job training, or through short-term certificate programs at a community or technical college. Technicians who want to advance in the field can earn professional certification from the International Association of Healthcare Central Service Materiel Management, or take a degree in health care administration and become a supervisor or manager. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projected 17 percent employment growth for medical equipment preparers through 2020, slightly better than the 14 percent average for all occupations.

Sterile Processing Certification is a mandatory requirement if you want to work in a medical facility and a sterile processing technician. To get this certification, you need to first enroll in one of the accredited learning facilities and pass all the examinations and practical tests. The facilities are monitored by various professional and regulatory bodies in a bid to ensure that they abide by the stipulated rules and regulations.

Jay Achar, a doctor stationed in Sierra Leone as part of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, spoke to Wired about the tablet. Achar works in a high-risk medical facility in the city of Magburaka, and asked his collegue Ivan Gayton to find a more efficient way to transfer medical records. Gayton, in turn, asked developers at Google.org — Google's charitable branch — for a solution. The company responded by creating a wireless tablet that could travel safely outside medical facilities.

THE TABLET CAN WITHSTAND BEING DIPPED IN CHLORINE

The tablet is encased in polycarbonate, a durable polymer often used because of its temperature and impact-resistant properties. Google's tablet can withstand being dipped in chlorine, which doctors in high-risk zones must do for 10 minutes to sanitize it before moving outside high-risk zones, Wired reports.

Eric D. Perakslis, a doctor at Harvard Medical School, is working with MSF to open source the tablet's technology in the hopes that developers will be able to modify the software and hardware design to fight other diseases.

The Ebola epidemic has claimed more than 10,000 lives, according to the World Health Organization's latest report. Although the outbreak is shrinking, and a promising vaccine surfaced in January, donation deployment has been slow, and contributions like Google's tablet take important steps towards eradicating the outbreak entirely.

Could NASA send humans to Mars orbit by 2033 and onto the surface of the planet by 2039? The Planetary Society — a nongovernmental space advocacy group — has announced that it thinks this timeline is achievable.

Earth's microbes are a hardy bunch. They can survive in extreme environments, such as inside hot springs at the bottom of the ocean. Some have even remained alive despite being exposed to ultraviolet and ionizing radiation, extreme low temperatures, and the vacuum of space.

This is why planetary protection advocates are so concerned about our exploration of other planets in the solar system. Concerns about the contamination of the icy moon Europa, for example, prompted controllers of NASA's Galileo mission to crash the spacecraft into Jupiter in 2003 so that microbes wouldn't accidentally take seed on what could be a habitable moon.

Nevertheless, despite the best efforts of spacecraft cleaners, some microbes seem to survive conventional cleaning processes. This is why a new method is emerging that uses ionized gas to kill the microbes. [Extremophiles: World's Weirdest Life]

The method was presented at the European Astrobiology Meeting in October 2014, in an effort led by Ralf Moeller, a space microbiologist at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Katharina Stapelmann, a plasma researcher at Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany.

"Plasma sterilization is a process not only compatible with modern spacecraft, but it also enables successful removal and inactivation of most resistant microbial species isolated in spacecraft assembly facilities," Moeller wrote in an email to Astrobiology Magazine.

"It is in the best interest of all spacefaring nations and research agencies, such as NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), to characterize spacecraft-assembly inhibiting microorganisms thoroughly in order to assess their potential for forward contamination, and development of more effective reduction, cleaning and sterilization technologies," Moeller added.

Cleanroom menaces