Kenz always knew she wanted to work at Renown and in healthcare. As a kid, she pictured herself becoming a heart surgeon. But when she turned 21 and started researching career paths, she discovered a world of possibilities in healthcare. She found several entry points into the hospital setting and applied for three jobs at once: Patient Access Representative, Unit Clerk in the emergency room (ER) and Unit Clerk in the operating room (OR).
She got all three offers.
“They told me, ‘You get to pick,’” Kenz said. She chose the OR.
That decision, made early in her career, became the start of a path that would eventually place her at the center of the surgical team, doing work that directly changes patients’ lives.
Kenz began as a Unit Clerk in the Tahoe Tower OR at Renown Regional Medical Center in 2019. Within a year, she was booking surgeries and running the board, learning the rhythms of the unit and building relationships across the department. The more she learned, the more curious she became about the roles inside the operating room.
That’s when she discovered what a surgical technologist does.
“I wanted to be in the room,” she said. “I wanted to be directly involved with the surgeries.”
In 2020, Kenz made a major leap, enrolling in a surgical technology branch program in northern Nevada at Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) through the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was scary to make a career move then,” she said. “But the OR still felt like the right place. It always did.”
Kenz started doing her clinical rotations at Renown and worked as an anesthesia tech for two years, gaining deep respect for the role anesthesia plays in every procedure and building strong relationships with anesthesiologists.
Along the way, she fell in love with orthopedics, especially after working ortho cases and seeing the impact firsthand.
Kenz earned her associate’s degree in surgical technology and became a fully certified surgical technologist. Today, she serves as a Surgical Technologist-Specialty Rep in orthopedics at Renown South Meadows Medical Center. She describes her work with unmistakable enthusiasm.
“I love surgery and I love ortho,” she said. “It’s cut and dry: broken bone? We have to fix it. A total knee replacement? Let’s go put it in.”
In the OR, her job depends on precision and preparation. “You have to be quick on your feet,” she explained. “Critical thinking matters. Time management is very specific in surgery. There are cases where you’re counting the seconds, because you don’t want a patient under anesthesia longer than they must be.”
According to Kenz, it’s a role that requires seeing the whole “wheel” of the operating room: the patient, the surgeon, anesthesia, sterile processing and instrumentation, and all the behind-the-scenes coordination that must come together exactly right. Kenz says strong communication and being personable are just as important as technical skills.
And for her, one of the most rewarding parts is the trust built over time with surgeons and teams.
“I love being scrubbed in and getting to actually be involved in the surgeries,” she said. “You build steady, strong relationships with doctors, which helps take out that ‘scary surgeon’ mindset you might have. At the end of the day, we’re all trying to help people live better.”
Kenz’s favorite moments are the ones patients may never see, when every moving part aligns, and the purpose of the work becomes clear. When the procedure is complete, Kenz sees the results in human terms: a person walking out with better mobility, more comfort and more time.
“We’re working on cases from routine surgeries to cancer diagnoses and even taking out necrotic bowel, potentially giving people years back of their lives,” she said. “It’s cool when you get to be the end for them.”
Kenz has worked in different OR environments, and she remembers cases that still stay with her, especially from her time in the Tahoe Tower, where trauma could be intense. “There’s a lot more on the line,” she said.
Kenz recalled a young motorcycle accident patient and how the team paused to read words from the patient’s wife before beginning the surgery. Moments like that, she said, bring perspective back into focus.
“It’s not just a leg,” she said. “That person has a whole family. This could be a family member of mine too. I treat every patient as though they were my own loved one.”
For anyone considering a healthcare career in surgical technology, Kenz keeps it simple:
“Go all in,” she said. “It’s a career field that can take a lot out of you – but only if you let it. If you give it your all, it’s a beautiful thing we get to do. Not everybody gets to do it or see it.”
