Biomedical technicians are an extremely important part of any medical provider's staff. For decades, electronic medical equipment has been a vital part of diagnosing patients, monitoring their condition and treating them. As a biomedical technician, you're responsible for keeping all of these devices operating correctly in order to ensure patient safety.
A career as a biomedical technician is a good choice for anyone who enjoys repairing electronic equipment and wants to work in a medical setting. If you think that you'd be interested in this career, read on for more information about what a biomedical technician's job duties are, where they're employed and what educational requirements you need to fulfill in order to become one.
What Does a Biomedical Technician Do?
One of your duties as a biomedical technician is to repair medical equipment in the hospital setting. You'll be working on electronic items like heart monitors and autoclaves, but you'll also be working on less sophisticated medical equipment such as hydraulic gurneys. If anything breaks down in the hospital, it's your job to repair it so that patients can be treated promptly.
However, repairing medical equipment isn't your main job duty. As a biomedical technician, you'll spend most of your time on calibration and maintenance. Hospitals and medical centers are required to keep maintenance logs of the medical equipment that they use. You'll be required to periodically inspect on-site medical equipment and test it to make sure that it's functioning properly. Proper maintenance helps to keep both patients and hospital staff safe from malfunctioning medical equipment.
Who Hires Biomedical Technicians?
Most biomedical technicians work at the point of care and are employed by hospitals or medical centers. They maintain on-site medical devices for their employers.
Another avenue of employment is working for a medical device manufacturer as a field service technician. Medical providers call field service technicians when their on-site biomedical technicians don't have the required expertise to repair a manufacturer's product.
What Are the Educational Requirements to Become a Biomedical Technician?
Biomedical technicians are required to earn their associate's degree in order to learn the skills that they need to repair and maintain medical equipment. Further advancement is possible by earning your bachelor's degree in biomedical technology, which allows you to maintain the most advanced medical equipment in use, such as CT scanners.
An important thing to note is that biomedical technicians need to continue their education even after graduation. New medical devices are being developed all the time, and you'll need to learn how to maintain, test and repair them. In order to learn about new devices, you'll attend training seminars held by medical device manufacturers. You can also continue your education through online biomedical technology schools, which offer courses on new products that have come to market.
What Advancement Opportunities Are Available for Biomedical Technicians?
Some biomedical technicians go back to school to earn a degree in biomedical engineering. This gives you the chance to design medical devices yourself rather than simply repair them. Biomedical engineering is a very math and science-heavy degree, but you can use the knowledge you've learned on the job to help you pass the courses necessary to earn your degree in this field.
Overall, working as a biomedical technician is a great choice for anyone who's good with electronic devices and wishes to help patients in a medical setting. You're an important part of the hospital staff, as medical devices are now an indispensable part of patient monitoring and treatment. If this field sounds like the right choice for you, contact a biomedical technology school and ask about their biomedical technician training program.
