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Kraena Pre-Health
Career Library

Entry Points

Sterile Processing Technician

Every safe operation starts here — cheap, fast entry into a hospital, and a real foot in the door.

Years after high school

Under 1

Degree

Certificate

Entrance exam

None

Median pay

$47,700 national median for medical equipment preparers (BLS, May 2025), the BLS occupation that includes preparing, sterilizing, installing, or cleaning healthcare equipment.

What the job is actually like

Receiving used instruments from surgery, decontaminating them, inspecting every piece, reassembling trays exactly to specification, and running sterilisers. Quiet, hot, physical, and unforgiving of shortcuts.

The path

  1. 01Certificate program, commonly a few months, or on-the-job training
  2. 02Supervised hands-on hours
  3. 03CRCST certification through HSPA

Good fit if

  • You want into a hospital within months at almost no cost
  • You are meticulous and like checklists done properly
  • You are aiming for surgical technology or nursing later

Think twice if

  • You want patient contact
  • You would find invisible work demoralising
  • You need higher pay soon

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Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)

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All salary figures here are median annual wages from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 — the most recent full national dataset. 'Median' means half of workers earn more and half earn less. Three things to keep in mind: (1) pay varies enormously by state, city, setting, and experience — a nurse in California and a nurse in rural Alabama earn very different salaries; (2) training lengths are typical, not guaranteed, and programs differ; (3) these numbers change every year. Always verify current figures at bls.gov/ooh before making a decision. For context, the BLS median wage for all U.S. occupations was $50,980, while healthcare practitioner and technical occupations had a median of $86,530 — one of the reasons health care is such a stable field.