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Everything nobody tells you about scrubbing in: the career, the paperwork, the instruments and the days that do not go to plan.
Start hereSurgical tech salarySurgical techs make a median $64,650 a year, or $31.08 an hour. The middle half make $54,690 to $79,750, and the top 10% more than $96,940. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025, for 117,460 surgical technolo… · 1 min read Read it 
Surgical Instruments Quiz, with Pictures
Five instrument questions with photographs, free, new every day. Then every way to quiz yourself on surgical instrumen… · 2 min read
Sterile Processing Instruments
What a sterile processing tech needs to know about every instrument: its name and its job, how to inspect and test it… · 2 min read
An honest look at the surgical tech career path
Surgical technology is a skilled trade with a two-year entry, a genuine ceiling most people never reach, and a working… · 1 min read
Surgical tech job outlook: 5% growth through 2034
The Surgical Counts App: Tracking Your Case Counts
Every case you scrub counts toward graduation. Here is what counts, how many you need, and what an app that keeps your… · 2 min read
Surgical Counts: A Complete Guide for Surgical Techs
What gets counted, when you count it, who does it, and exactly what happens when the numbers do not match. A surgical… · 4 min read
Introduction to Colonoscopy
A colonoscopy is an examination of the whole large bowel with a flexible scope carrying a camera and a light. It is us… · 1 min read
54 Basic Surgical Instruments: Pictures, Names, and Uses
Fifty-four instruments is the set almost every surgical technology program hands out in the first term, and the one yo… · 6 min read
Understanding power ports
A power port is an implanted port that can take a high-pressure injection. Like any port it is a small chamber placed… · 1 min read
Printable surgical tech flashcards
Surgical instrument flashcards with real photographs. Print the 54 basics free, or study any setup's instruments as a… · 1 min read
Surgical Tech Clinicals: Be Ready for Tomorrow's Case
Log your cases wherever your program says. Then spend ten minutes tonight on the part that decides how tomorrow goes… · 4 min read
Essential guide to operating room instruments
Instrument names are easier to hold onto once you stop learning them one at a time. Almost everything in an operating… · 1 min read
The Ultimate Guide to Logging Clinical Cases (Without Losing Your Mind)
In an accredited program your clinical log is a legal document. Program directors are required to audit it, and every… · 4 min readWhile you are here
The articles are the small half.
Most of CSTSetup is the reference the writing keeps pointing at.
Case setupsBack table, Mayo, medications and counts, written up case by case by the techs who scrubbed them.259 and countingInstrument libraryWhat it is called, what it is for and what it looks like in someone's hand. Photographed, not sketched.2,882 and countingHelp deskStraight answers about the site, your account and how any of this works. Ask if the answer is not there.39 and counting
Stop reading, start drilling
Read it once. Know it cold.
Every setup on the site is also a deck. Same content, asked back at you until it sticks, with the ones you keep missing coming round more often.
Write up your own case
You just scrubbed something nobody has written down. Put it up and the next tech walks in ready.
Start a setupLog your clinical cases
Cases, hours and preceptor sign-off in one place, counted against your program's accreditation targets as you go.
See the educator portal