For tech students, it's pass the knife, please

3/4/2007
The Providence Sunday Journal
By Arthur Kimball-Stanley

Juan Tejada watched closely as the surgical instruments were passed under the hot lights illuminating the operating table.

"You have to make sure you pass it swiftly and decisively," Kathy Morenzoni, the registered nurse running the class, explained. "The surgeon has to know and expect exactly what you are going to do."

The 12 students, mostly women, gathered around the plastic dummy lying on the table, nod and watch. Dressed in scrubs in their model operating room, it's easy to forget that they are not operating on a real person. They are in a surgical technology course at the New England Institute of Technology in Warwick." I'm taking this course to move my career along," Tejada whispered, his eyes still watching the instructor. "I want to use this to work toward getting qualified to be an OR [operating room] nurse. It's the next step."

As the only program of its kind in Rhode Island that offers college credit, New England Tech's surgical technology program allows aspiring medical professionals to get an associate's degree in the medical field while acquiring the skills for a job.

Students interviewed who are enrolled or who have graduated from the program all said they found the program to be a great way to balance education and work, since they were able to land jobs as surgical technicians in less than two years and put the course work to use in other degrees.

"This is a great step in the right direction if you plan on going on to nursing or medical school," said Brandie Lee Baker, a recent graduate of the program from Boston.

Former emergency medical technician, Baker had to reconsider her career goals after being injured. Fascinated by the medical field, she knew she wanted to stay in health care, and at the same time get training that would land a new job quickly. Given the high demand for surgical technicians, the choice, she said, was straightforward.

"The job market is really good for our graduates right now," Lisa Reed, surgical technology department chair at the New England Institute of Technology, said. "Since we place students in internships with hospitals, the hospitals know our students are capable before they graduate. Almost all of our graduates land job where they intern."

For Natalie Caetano, also from Mattapoisett, Mass., getting a chance to be part of the surgical team was more than enough of a reason to enroll.

"I wanted to be part of that important group in the hospital," she said. "We get to do things many nurses never see."

Learning to function as a part of a surgical team, performing operational procedures and backing up surgeons, students said, is part of the program's draw. But the coursework in anatomy and physiology, micro-biology, as well as other sciences and courses in medical terminology make the degree highly valuable simply in terms of transferable education.

"These courses transfer over," Tejada said, "So they open doors down the road."

A former medical assistant in the Army, Tejada said he had been looking for a way to break into one of the medical professions that require certification, such as surgical technology. To take the National Certification Exam given by the Liaison Council on Certification for the surgical technologists, students must enroll in a certified coursework program. The problem is that many of those courses don't offer credit that transfers to other degrees. For Tejada, the institute's program provided that perfect fit, he said.

Getting into the program is not easy and the number of prerequisite science courses might be daunting for some students, Reed said.

But for those interested in getting involved in a fast-growing field, while at the same time giving themselves room to continue their education, the institute's program might be a good choice.

"This is a good fit," Baker said, "for someone interested in the medical field and hoping to keep the option open to continue their education."