The hum of the operating lights, the light tension in the room as you and your team work to provide patients with life-saving procedures, and the smell of antiseptic — as an operating room technician, the OR is your natural habitat.
But lately, you’re just not thriving in your day-to-day routine.
You couldn’t imagine leaving the healthcare field for another career, and you don’t have to!
As a travel OR tech, you can add a little extra flavor to your job by traveling from state to state and city to city, fulfilling your role as support staff for hospitals and healthcare facilities. Keep reading to learn how to dive into this wonderful and exciting career.
Table of Contents
- What Is a Travel OR Tech?
- 4 Benefits of Working as a Travel OR Tech
- How To Become a Travel OR Tech: A Glance at Skills, Qualifications, Demand, and Earning Potential
- Start Your Travel OR Tech Journey With Pronto
What Is a Travel OR Tech?
A traveling OR tech, also known as a surgical technologist, travels to work in an operating room at a hospital, surgical center, and other medical facilities nationwide. Aside from assisting surgeons, doctors, and nurses with surgical tasks, other common duties involve:
- Providing patient care
- Preparing operating room equipment
- Checking patient vital signs throughout surgery
- Operating basic hand tools
- Transferring patients out of the operating room
- Delivering any specimens to labs
- Restocking OR supplies
4 Benefits of Working as a Travel OR Tech
#1: Getting To Travel
As a travel OR tech, you get to couple your love for your career with your passion for traveling.
The healthcare industry is just one of the few job sectors that allows its workers to travel. It also needs hard-working allied health travel professionals who can temporarily work in other facilities experiencing staff shortages.
You’re essentially getting paid to travel (with a little work in between) while significantly impacting these facilities and providing essential care patients may not get otherwise. And instead of briefly visiting a trendy city for vacation, you get to live in your preferred destinations for up to 6, 8, or 13 weeks, which is plenty of time to do everything you wouldn’t be able to if you were only visiting somewhere for a week or so.
For those who find planning a simple vacation tedious, it can be hard to imagine yourself making similar moves every time you need to find a new place or job assignment to work. That’s why Trusted Nurse Staffing created Pronto.
Pronto allows you to find or travel tech jobs easily at the click of a button. Find your dream assignment with Pronto today.
#2: Job Flexibility
Travel OR techs have the freedom to choose where and when they want to work and for how much. Just imagine: one month, you could be working in a bustling city at a facility with leading surgeons and the next at a small hospital in a rural town. As a travel OR tech, the choice is up to you, and there are so many different choices.
Working as a travel OR tech also means you can organize your life better. Healthcare workers often work inconsistent schedules, miss holidays, and may sometimes go a while without a much-needed vacation. But if you’re a travel OR tech, you could take contracts back to back to make a lot of money or plan your timeline to align with significant events or vacations. No more having to carefully divide and plan your PTO.
As a travel OR tech with Trusted Nurse Staffing, you can attend your friend’s destination wedding without having to sacrifice visiting your family for Christmas.
Trusted Nurse Staffing also offers our allied health travel professionals exceptional contract management assistance. Just let us know how we can help you plan your assignments, and we will devise the best course of action for your journey.
#3: Professional Growth
As an operating room technician, you’ll need to experience new challenges and environments to cultivate new skills and nurture your talent. Becoming a travel OR tech can expand your horizons while helping you better understand the surgical field.
Whether you’re participating in a diverse range of surgeries, working with the industry’s top pros, or handling the latest surgical technology, traveling as an OR tech gives you countless opportunities to thrive.
#4: Networking Opportunities
While working and traveling the country at various facilities, you’ll get to add names and locations to your resume as you work in different facilities and mix and mingle with top minds in the field. Play your cards right, and countless doors of opportunity may open for your career.
You’ll also have many opportunities to meet new people and other travelers, some of whom may become your lifelong pals.
How To Become a Travel OR Tech: A Glance at Skills, Qualifications, Demand, and Earning Potential
Education
To become an OR tech, you must:
- Have a high school diploma or GED equivalent.
- Graduate with an Associate’s degree from a Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) accredited surgical technology program.
Programs may take one to two years to complete.
Licensing and Certifications
Unlike other allied health workers, travel OR techs do not need to be licensed or certified to work in other states, with the one exception of Arkansas. As the only state to require licensure for OR techs, you must become licensed after taking the Certified Surgical Technologist certification through the Nation Board of Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting.
While becoming certified as an OR tech is not required, many employers still strongly prefer it.
Other certifications that may make a potential travel OR tech more valuable to facilities that pay more for assignments include:
- Tech in Surgery-Certified (TS-C)
- Nationally Certified Operating Room and Surgical Technician (NCORST)
Experience
Most recruiting agencies and facilities looking for travel OR techs prefer candidates with at least one to two years of experience before applying. This ensures you are well-equipped to handle your job while not getting overwhelmed by changing environments.
Trusted Nurse Staffing prefers our allied health travelers have at least two years of clinical experience before pursuing travel OR tech jobs with our agency.
Demand
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the job outlook for surgical assistants and technologists, like OR techs, is expected to grow 6% from 2023 to 2033. Over the next decade, 8,700 openings for surgical techs will open up each year to keep up with demand.
Earning Potential
According to ZipRecruiter, travel OR technicians make an average of $1,882 per week in the United States.
The top ten highest-paying cities for travel OR techs include:
- Belmont, CA: $2,368 per week
- San Francisco, CA: $2,325 per week
- San Jose, CA: $2,248 per week
- Benicia, CA: $2,223 per week
- Oakland, CA: $2,200 per week
- Hayward, CA: $2,196 per week
- Ashland, CA: $2,196 per week
- Vallejo, CA: $2,194 per week
- Antioch, CA: $2,190 per week
- Seattle, WA: $2,183 per week
Start Your Travel OR Tech Journey With Pronto
With all the benefits of working as a traveling OR tech, you’re probably wondering how to immediately start your journey as a travel allied health professional.
With Pronto and Trusted Nurse Staffing, you can start today!
Using Pronto, you can find travel OR tech assignments based on where, how long, and how much the assignment pays. Sounds like a great deal? To get started, just follow these instructions:
- Sign up for Pronto and create your profile by uploading your resume, certifications, and more.
- Next, Pronto will automatically match you with a Trusted Nurse Staffing recruiter who will guide you through the signing process for your assignment.
And just like that, you can start packing your bags and making moves. Rest assured, Trusted Nurse Staffing will provide continuous support with your own team of experts who include:
- Compliance experts who will help you navigate all the necessary facilities — and state-specific licensing and testing at no cost to you.
- Payroll experts who will help you with any questions you may have regarding payroll or salary.
- Recruitment experts who will advocate for you throughout your assignment.
Trusted Nurse Staffing loves to give its employees what they deserve: fantastic support and great benefits, such as:
- A welcome box
- $1500 bonus for referring your friends or a facility that is not already partnered with us
- An ambassador program where you can receive bonuses for creating robust content as a travel OR tech
- And more
Ready to begin your journey as a travel OR tech? Sign up for Pronto today to look for travel or tech jobs.