Deb Leal

1 week ago | wsj.com | Lauren Weber |Deb Leal

Fatima el Idrissi makes $34 an hour in a New York City hospital lab, where she washes and sterilizes instruments used by surgeons. It’s double what she earned not long ago as a child-care aide and required less than a year of classroom and internship training. She almost didn’t find out the job existed. She randomly spotted a video posted in a Facebook group by a woman in Arizona—and discovered hospitals struggle to find staff who can sterilize surgical equipment.