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

What is a surgical orderly 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 orderly. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.15 an hour? That's $35,676 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 137,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSurgical OrderlyUS Average

Salary

2.8

Avg. Salary $35,676

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

10.0

Growth Rate 9%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.57%

Asian 4.59%

Black or African American 27.26%

Hispanic or Latino 15.35%

Unknown 4.16%

White 48.06%

Gender

female 17.78%

male 82.22%

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

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.5

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

8.1

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a surgical orderly

Explore surgical orderly education requirements

Most common surgical orderly degrees

High School Diploma

31.6 %

Bachelor's

31.6 %

Associate

15.8 %

Start to develop specific surgical orderly skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	52.38%
Stretchers	19.48%
Patient Transport	13.38%
Surgical Equipment	7.94%
Vital Signs	2.84%

Research surgical orderly duties and responsibilities

Manage medical records and document examination notes, prescriptions, and procedure details in EMR.
Provide patient with positive/negative pathology results, pre-op, assist, post-op and provide patient education regarding their procedures.
Prepare rooms and patients for surgery and assist Dr. during surgery with anesthesia delivery and monitoring and equipment.

Prepare your surgical orderly resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your surgical orderly 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 orderly 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 Orderly Resume templates

Build a professional Surgical Orderly 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 Orderly resume.

Apply for surgical orderly jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a surgical orderly job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams