How closely related are Surgical Technicians and Emergency Physican's Assistant? and which college would be best if I wanted to pursue those career fields?

this question was posted in 2016, I'm sure you chose a great career.

having said that , they both work with the surgeon in surgery, the difference is , education and income for the PA is that they will do more clinical ( hands on with patient ) than a CST.

the PA can round ( see patients post/pre op) for the surgeon.

the surgical tech is there to allocate most everything that is needed during the surgical case and then break it down to set up for the next case. in short they will strictly stay in the surgical/O.R setting.

What do you want to do long-term? Some states require the national certification for surgical technology in order to practice in that state. That in turn means that you must enroll and complete a program that is credentialed and accepted by the NBSTSA, then take the national test. I am a CST. I have not been working as such and am currently working on my masters in public health. That did help give me a stable informed background that can be applied through experience. Depending upon where you work, duties of a ST will vary greatly and certain specialties are more desired than others such as orthopedics. Hospital, outpatient surgery centers and some clinics will utilize a CST. This can be a stressful field, yet emergency medicine is also. As to PA's, I've only worked with PA's that attained their BS through the PA program or went to the PA program after having completed a BS. Many PA's work in the clinic setting and occasionally in surgery. When in surgery they are only there as an assistant to the surgeon during the surgical procedure. I am not familiar with EPA's.

I would advise checking the NBSTSA site; https://www.nbstsa.org and the AST site; http://www.ast.org

for more information on CST. There you can also find information on First Assisting.