Celebrating Surgical Technologists Week

The Association of Surgical Technologists Board of Directors dedicated the third week in September to recognizing surgical technologists in 1984. National Surgical Technologist Week has been celebrated every year since as an opportunity to promote the profession and educate the community about the vital role that surgical technologists play in the operating room.

The theme of this year's National Surgical Technologist Week is "Surgical Technology - Backbone of the OR." It's a great time to make sure the surgical technologist, or ST students and faculty, in your community get recognized and appreciated. On the Association of Surgical Technologists website, there are links to contests you can enter or gifts you can buy to let your surgical technologists know how much you appreciate them.

Many of our various Concorde campuses with Surgical Technologist programs around the country are planning week-long celebrations commemorating the week. Following is a sample of what just some of our campuses have planned.

Celebrating the contributions of Surgical Technologists 

Gerald Hale, AAS, CST, Director of Concorde Surgical Technology Programs in Portland, OR, intends on using that AST website to order gifts for his students.

"We do a drawing to give them all away to each of our classes," Hale said. "Some stuff is thrown in there that has the Concorde logo on it. We do pizza and some kind of dessert on one day during the week."

Surgical Technology Programs in Dallas have an entire week of activities planned. Students will visit an elementary school and meet with kindergarten classes discussing the importance of cleaning their hands on Monday. Tuesday is a "fun day with crazy hats." Snacks will also be provided, and there will be a live demonstration in the ST lab, followed by a prize drawing and pictures. Students will have in-class celebrations on Wednesday.

Larry Shane Sykes, Director of Concorde Surgical Technology Programs in Aurora, CO, ordered Tumbler cups for each person in his class that will be filled with candy on Monday. He's giving out buttons and shirts to students Wednesday, and Friday the class will have a pot luck lunch.

The students of Concorde Surgical Technology Programs in Grand Prairie, TX will be doing a demo for the entire school.

"We are going to show the rest of the programs what we do in the ST programs by performing a mock surgery," said Martin Davis, CST, MBA, Program Director. "We also are giving out thank yous to our ST preceptors who spend countless hours helping train our students who are in clinical's. Goodies will be provided, such as donuts, cupcakes, etc. for students the entire week."

And... the future Surgical Technologists at other campuses

Arthur Martinez, Jr., CST/FA, AA, Director of Concorde Surgical Technology programs in North Hollywood, CA, said his students will be delivering cakes to clinical sites in appreciation for their partnership.

The campus in Orlando is planning on giving goody bags and cookies through the week, said Adrienne Evans-Conca, Director of Concorde Surgical Technology Programs in Orlando, FL. The mayor of Orlando declared the week as Surgical Technology Week for the Orlando campus and will present a dedication plaque to the campus Friday. Concorde - Orlando also is catering lunch to its affiliation hospitals Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

Concorde Surgical Technology programs in San Bernardino, CA will be giving out assorted bags of chocolate candy to its clinical sites. Students will be presented pizza and scalpel key chains.

Finally, Javier Espinales, M.Ed., CST, Director of Concorde Surgical Technology programs in San Antonio, TX, said his department will celebrate the week with a cake cutting for each cohort.