Sterilize medical equipment or instruments
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 12 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Performing General Physical Activities (4.A.3.a.1) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 12 occupations that perform it.
- Store, sterilize, or prepare the special applicators containing the radioactive substance implanted by the physician.
- Examine instruments, equipment, and operating room to ensure sterility.
- Maintain dental equipment and sharpen and sterilize dental instruments.
- Decontaminate ambulance interior following treatment of patient with infectious disease, and report case to proper authorities.
- Clean and help maintain equipment or work areas and sterilize glassware, according to prescribed methods.
- Wash and sterilize equipment, using germicides and sterilizers.
- Clean and sterilize instruments, equipment, or materials.
- Clean or sterilize ophthalmic or surgical instruments.
- Sterilize equipment and supplies, using germicides, sterilizer, or autoclave.
- Operate sterilizing devices.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
12 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Dental Hygienists
- Emergency Medical Technicians
- Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses
- Ophthalmic Medical Technicians
- Ophthalmic Medical Technologists
- Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric
- Pediatric Surgeons
- Pharmacy Technicians
- Radiation Therapists
- Surgical Assistants
- Surgical Technologists
- Veterinary Technologists and Technicians
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Clean medical equipment or facilities”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Clean medical equipment or facilities | 12 |
| Clean medical equipment | 10 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.