How To Become A Surgical Aide: What It Is and Career Path

What is a surgical aide and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a surgical aide. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.25 an hour? That's $31,726 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 137,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSurgical AideUS Average

Salary

2.5

Avg. Salary $31,726

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.5

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.90%

Asian 6.30%

Black or African American 7.28%

Hispanic or Latino 15.02%

Unknown 4.95%

White 65.54%

Gender

female 64.05%

male 35.95%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

8.5

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

10.0

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a surgical aide

Explore surgical aide education requirements

Most common surgical aide degrees

Bachelor's

35.1 %

Associate

28.4 %

High School Diploma

13.5 %

Start to develop specific surgical aide skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	41.30%
Patient Care	20.19%
Infection Control	12.73%
Stretchers	6.00%
Surgical Procedures	5.94%

Complete relevant surgical aide training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New surgical aides learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a surgical aide based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real surgical aide resumes.

Research surgical aide duties and responsibilities

Manage medical records and document examination notes, prescriptions, and procedure details in EMR.
Prepare patients for medical examination and procedures.
Plan activities base on assign student's IEP to encourage appropriate independence and facilitate/support student's participation in all activities.
Provide behavioral/emotional support and supervision for those with dementia and Alzheimer's.

Prepare your surgical aide resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your surgical aide resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a surgical aide resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable surgical aide resume templates

Build a professional surgical aide resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your surgical aide resume.