Hospitals are desperate to fill a middle-class health care job that only requires candidates to graduate from a certificate program — the issue is nobody’s heard of it.
Sterile processing technicians maintain the hygiene and safety of medical institutions by decontaminating, inspecting, packaging and sterilizing the tools used in the facilities.
Other related titles include Certified Registered Central Service Technician, sterilization technician, medical equipment preparer and Sterile Processing and Distribution Technician, per the Indeed Career Guide.
These are vital — and well-paying — roles that facilities struggle to hire for, mainly because most people don’t know the job exists.
Salaries for entry-level hourly positions range from around $50,000 to $70,000 a year, health care expert Rebecca Hanson told the Wall Street Journal.
However, the national average salary is $74,898 per year, with pay ranging from $57,113 to $98,221 per year, based on Indeed data.
The positions often come with employer benefits such as 401(k) plans, health insurance and paid time off.
Hanson, an executive director at a company that helps train people to join the health care field, said jobs in surgical instrument sterilization can be a great start to other higher-paying roles, such as a radiologist or surgical technician.
