Essential Functions

The purpose of the essential functions list is to allow prospective students who are considering a career to be informed of the physical, emotional, and psychological demands related to training and employment in a field of study. These lists are provided to allow prospective students to make informed career choices by providing them with a summary of the physical abilities and personality traits that are generally required for the successful completion of a curriculum and result in employment in their field of study after graduation.

Surgical technology is a career with different paths; however, an accredited educational program has the responsibility to ensure that every student is technically competent in the procedures and tasks that are essential to the functioning of a technician in a clinical setting. To this end, the Surgical Technology faculty has developed the following list of essential functions that students are able to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation, at the time of admission to the Surgical Technology program.

Students must possess sufficient strength, coordination, mobility, and manual dexterity to perform the following procedures accurately, safely, and efficiently:

• Be physically capable of handling equipment and objects that weigh up to 50 pounds.
• Move, reach, manipulate, and operate equipment and controls.
• Access supply and storage areas.
• Move between holding facilities, treatment areas, and surgical suites without physical impairment.
• Spend prolonged periods of time standing, sitting, crouching, and bending.
• Reach, push, or pull objects or equipment in confined areas.

Students must be able to demonstrate the following abilities:

• Normal natural or corrected visual and auditory acuity.
• Tolerance of high volume areas.
• Recognition of signals, alarms, emergency signals, and voices while in care or treatment facilities and while wearing protective garb.
• Recognition of the presence of fire, gas, or toxic reagents for maintaining clinic and patient safety.

Students must possess the following skills:

• Critical thinking and problem solving skills.
• The ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Reading and writing skills.
• Strong and positive interpersonal skills with the ability to interact appropriately with individuals from a variety of social, emotional, cultural, and intellectual backgrounds.
• Personal initiative to work independently and with small groups of people.
• Stress management skills to handle stressful situations related to pain, injury, death, and dying.
• Initiative and self-motivation to continue life-long learning.