An orthopedic technician performs various support tasks under an orthopedic doctor or surgeon. These tasks may include medical and non-medical duties, depending on the technician's training level and experience. For medical tasks, orthopedic technicians assist doctors with applying and removing casts, adjusting traction equipment, and assisting surgeons in the operating room.
On the other hand, orthopedic technicians may also perform non-medical duties such as educating patients about their condition, filling out paperwork, handling correspondence, and monitoring the inventory of medical supplies.
To become an orthopedic technician, you must be at least a high school graduate with related working experience or a college graduate with or without working experience. You may also be required to have a certification or license to work, depending on which state you live in. Furthermore, you must be physically strong enough to assist patients with walking or getting up if they fall over.
With this job, you can earn around $38,000 a year on average, but your salary can be as much as $50,000, depending on your experience level and where you work.c
How to Become an Orthopedic Technician
What is an Orthopedic Technician
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an Orthopedic Technician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.8 an hour? That's $41,179 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 9,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Orthopedic Technician Do
There are certain skills that many Orthopedic Technicians have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed Technical skills, Interpersonal skills and Dexterity.
How To Become an Orthopedic Technician
If you're interested in becoming an Orthopedic Technician, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 39.1% of Orthopedic Technicians have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 6.2% of Orthopedic Technicians have master's degrees. Even though some Orthopedic Technicians have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an Orthopedic Technician. When we researched the most common majors for an Orthopedic Technician, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or Associate Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Orthopedic Technician resumes include High School Diploma degrees or Master's Degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an Orthopedic Technician. In fact, many Orthopedic Technician jobs require experience in a role such as Medical Assistant. Meanwhile, many Orthopedic Technicians also have previous career experience in roles such as Surgical Technician or Certified Nursing Assistant.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
And if you’re looking for a job, here are the five top employers hiring now:
Orthopedic Technician Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, an Orthopedic Technician can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as Surgical Technician, progress to a title such as Registered Nurse and then eventually end up with the title Operations Manager.
Orthopedic Technician Jobs You Might Like
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for an Orthopedic Technician
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Orthopedic Technician Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Orthopedic Technician templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Orthopedic Technician resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Orthopedic Technician Demographics
Orthopedic Technician Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among Orthopedic Technicians, 43.8% of them are women, while 56.2% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among Orthopedic Technicians is White, which makes up 58.2% of all Orthopedic Technicians.
- The most common foreign language among Orthopedic Technicians is Spanish at 61.3%.
Find the best Orthopedic Technician job for you
Orthopedic Technician Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Orthopedic Technician Jobs - $53K and Up
- Entry Level Orthopedic Technician Jobs
- Part Time Orthopedic Technician Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Orthopedic Technician Jobs
Top Colleges for Orthopedic Technicians
1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
2. University of Florida
Gainesville, FL • Private
3. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Private
4. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
5. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Private
6. Northeastern University
Boston, MA • Private
7. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
8. Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL • Private
9. University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI • Private
10. University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT • Private
Find the best Orthopedic Technician job for you
Orthopedic Technician Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Orthopedic Technician Jobs - $53K and Up
- Entry Level Orthopedic Technician Jobs
- Part Time Orthopedic Technician Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Orthopedic Technician Jobs
Online Courses For Orthopedic Technician That You May Like
Human Anatomy: Musculoskeletal Cases invites students to join medical and basic science faculty at Harvard Medical School (HMS) to learn about musculoskeletal injuries commonly seen in clinical practice. For each case, students visit the HMS Clinical Skills Center to observe the initial patient encounter and physical examination by an orthopedic surgeon. Following the patient encounter, students complete the interactive gross anatomy, histology and radiology learning sessions essential for...
Maintaining and troubleshooting sophisticated medical instruments is not an easy task. In order to deliver effective care, the technician requires the knowledge of different aspects of biology and engineering. The different devices work in so many different ways and the literature about repair and troubleshooting is often hard to come by. It can be quite frustrating to search for solutions every time the operator encounters a problem. There is added pressure because the availability of medical...
This course imparts a wide range of basic knowledge and skills in the field of trauma surgical and orthopedic treatment of patients. To facilitate this, the course employs a new concept of information transfer. We follow a scientific approach and a sophisticated combination of modern teaching methods to vividly impart the taught contents. This included case-based learning, comprehensive factual knowledge, and consecutive quizzes, which help to better memorize the learned contents and later emplo...
Top Skills For an Orthopedic Technician
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 13.4% of Orthopedic Technicians listed Orthopedics on their resume, but soft skills such as Technical skills and Interpersonal skills are important as well.
Best States For an Orthopedic Technician
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an Orthopedic Technician. The best states for people in this position are California, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Alaska. Orthopedic Technicians make the most in California with an average salary of $49,165. Whereas in North Dakota and Minnesota, they would average $48,679 and $47,150, respectively. While Orthopedic Technicians would only make an average of $46,441 in Alaska, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Iowa
$45,068
Avg. Salary
2. Utah
$45,364
Avg. Salary
3. Alaska
$46,441
Avg. Salary