New surgical technologists ready for work
When you have to go to a surgeon for a life saving procedure, you want the best skilled people to be on the surgical team. Fourteen new, highly skilled and well trained surgical technologists are now available in our local health care industry. This week, Lee County High Tech Center North graduated students who have been in training for the last year.
The graduates are: Soloman Barrett, Heather Barzo, Maria Catalano, Leslie Corona, Nadine Frisella, Andrew Lea, Krystl Martinez, Joel Massop, Jose Oliva, Debra Rodriguez, Patricia Rueth, Abel Santiago, Lynn Scalone and Richard Taber. The surgical technology program at High Tech North is the only program of its type in Lee County.
The students at High Tech North go through a program of 1,330 hours that includes intensive lecture and academic preparation, followed by hands-on practice in a mock operating room and then eventually working in hospital theaters side-by-side with surgeons conducting life-saving operations.
Students are prepared, instructed and evaluated and they are well prepared to conduct all the procedures expected of surgical technologists including: selection and preparation of surgical instruments specific for each surgical procedure; anticipation of the instruments that the surgeon will ask for during the surgery; proper handling of instruments during the procedure; and the final accounting and completion of the instrument phase of the operation. It’s a serious job, technical at times, and students must be well prepared before stepping into the surgical theater.
And the graduates of High Tech North are ready. The program was just recently reaccredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), which is the industry standard for surgical technologist accreditation. The school is separately accredited by the Council on Occupational Education (COE) and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools / Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS/CASI).
These students are already being hired by local hospitals, medical centers and physicians as they take their place in the medical community.
Anyone interested in the program is urged to call the school at 574-4440 for more information.
The next class will begin in January 2009.