How Your Hand-Eye Coordination Plays a Role as a Surgical Tech

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In the operating room, surgical techs are the surgeon’s right hand man. There may be an assistant across from the surgeon, hired privately. As a surgical tech who is in charge of the instrument tray, it is his or her responsibility to tend to the surgeon and assistant’s needs. This job requires forethought, before, during and after the procedure, about what the surgical technologist will do to implement safety and caution for himself and others.

Passing Sharps

People with weak hand-eye coordination will be affected with fine motor skills, and may have trouble gripping things and aiming. With lifelong diseases that have no cure and are potentially lethal, passing sharps comes to the surgical technologist as a cautious undertaking. Passing sharps nowadays is far more dangerous than even 20 years ago. Yet, regarding the fact that team members can be cut or punctured with a sharp, the risk of contracting HIV or Hepatitis C is an extremely real possibility. Hand-eye coordination and good attention skills of the surgical technologist will keep safety alive in the operating room. Good body mechanics are imperative. Visibility in seeing where that sharp is going to land is paramount.

In addition, when loading scalpel blades on and off the handles, there must be excellent coordination to prevent slicing finger(s) or having a catastrophe of contaminating the field with the surgical technologist’s blood. Injury from surgical sharps is a truly serious thing and must be prevented, if at all possible. Removal of sharps is also a bit tedious, especially when working with bloody, sticky instruments.

Working with Scopes

Oftentimes, the surgical technologist will be in the surgical assistant’s role. When a surgeon is performing laparoscopic procedures, it may be necessary for the surgical tech to use laparoscopic equipment to help. This involves watching a television monitor to follow the hand movement for just the right treatment for the patient. There are cautery instruments involved, so the surgical tech will have to be constantly aware how close to the electrical instrument he is working. The current can bounce off an instrument and burn a hole in the bowel, or any other organ that moves into the field without notice.

Also, if the surgical tech needs to grasp the gallbladder or another organ for exposure, there has to be accurate depth perception in order to use this stringent technique. The tech should have excellent visibility in the field in order to know when to cut tissue for the surgeon or manipulate mesh or hemostatic clips. If the hand-eye-coordination is not efficient, the patient may wind up with a procedure that was not pre-planned. It takes a lot of practice to use laparoscopic instruments and be really good with them.

Working with Others

Many times, the surgeon will have the tech use a mallet in orthopedic procedures. Tapping in wires, osteotomies, chisels, and other bone instruments require good coordination from both the surgeon and tech. There may also be a need to hold things still, or readjust a bone clamp in the middle of a procedure that is completely frustrating to all involved. Repeatedly, the surgeon needs the support and cooperation of the tech, with professionalism and absolute accuracy.