National Application Center :: career details :: Medical Appliance Technicians
Career Details :: Medical Appliance Technicians
Description
Construct, fit, maintain, or repair medical supportive devices, such as braces, artificial limbs, joints, arch supports, and other surgical and medical appliances.
Experience
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience may be helpful in these occupations, but usually is not needed. For example, a drywall installer might benefit from experience installing drywall, but an inexperienced person could still learn to be an installer with little difficulty.
Education
These occupations usually require a high school diploma and may require some vocational training or job-related course work. In some cases, an associate's or bachelor's degree could be needed.
Training
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees.
Tasks
- Carves, cuts, grinds, and welds wood, plastic, or metal material to fabricate medical supportive devices, using hand and power tools.
- Constructs or receives plaster cast of patient's torso or limbs to use as pattern for cutting and fabricating supportive devices.
- Tests medical supportive device for body fit, alignment, movement, and biomechanical stability, using meters and alignment fixtures.
- Covers or pads metal or plastic structures and devices, using coverings such as rubber, leather, felt, plastic, or fiberglass.
- Instructs patient in use of prosthetic or orthotic device.
- Reads specifications to determine type of product or device to be fabricated and selects required materials and tools.
- Lays out and marks dimensions of parts, using templates and precision measuring instruments.
- Fabricates wax or plastic impression of amputated area and prepares mold from impression to form artificial cosmetic ear, nose, or hand.
- Repairs and maintains medical supportive devices, such as artificial limbs, braces, and surgical supports, according to specifications.
- Mixes pigments according to formula to match skin coloring of patient and applies mixture to prosthetic or orthotic device.
- Fits appliance onto patient and adjusts appliance as necessary.
- Bends, forms, and shapes fabric or material to conform to measurements for prescribed contours to fabricate structural components.
- Drills and taps holes for rivets, and glues, welds, bolts, and rivets parts together to form prosthetic or orthotic device.
- Polishes artificial limbs, braces, and supports, using grinding and buffing wheels.
Related Careers
- Bicycle Repairers
- Camera and Photographic Equipment Repairers
- Forging Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Letterpress Setters and Set-Up Operators
- Maintenance Workers, Machinery
- Medical Equipment Preparers
- Opticians, Dispensing
- Printing Press Machine Operators and Tenders
Important Abilities
General Work Activities
- Handling and Moving Objects
- Getting Information Needed to Do the Job
- Assisting and Caring for Others
- Controlling Machines and Processes
- Updating & Using Job-Relevant Knowledge
Important Skills
Frequent Work Context
- Indoors
- Importance of Being Exact or Accurate
- Importance of Being Sure All Is Done
- Consequence of Error
- Using Hands on Objects, Tools, Controls
