Hi I'm Emily Simms. I am the program director for the HACC surgical technology program,
and today we're going to talk about really what a surgical technologist is
and a surgical technologist works under the supervision of the surgeon.
We are part of the allied health profession
and we also are experts in aseptic technique,
sterile technique, human anatomy and also surgical procedures.
And today I'm going to talk to you about a typical day once you're in the program and in clinical.
First, we do have our students arrive at 6:30 in the morning until 3 p.m.
Once you get into clinical you want to get your assignment inside the operating room
where you are designated in one OR for the day.
You are paired with a preceptor, who is a staff member of the hospital.
What you want to do is you want to check the schedule,
look at the patient's name, their weight, any allergies,
go through the supplies inside the OR, the equipment, proper instruments that you have.
Once you kind of check all of the supplies and instruments,
you're going to perform the surgical scrub,
and then come inside the operating room, gown and glove, and set up for the case.
Typically you could be in an eight-hour case,
or you could be in an operating room where they have three to four cases running.
With that said, comes standing on your feet.
Your feet really are your career
and so you want to make sure you take proper care of getting good shoes
and really getting used to standing and being involved in a physical role.
And once we kind of pull up to the sterile field where the patient is,
you will be really the patient's and the surgeon's right-hand man.
After a case, you want to help with turnover of course,
helping facilitate a speedy turnover for the next case.
Most of our alumni end up getting jobs at our local hospitals
and they, the reason is because they like the flexibility.
So you can do eight hour shifts, 10 hour shifts, 12 hour shifts, which is really nice,
but with that of course comes, you know, call, working holidays, working overtime,
so it's really nice however if that, you know, that meets your schedule
or for the more Monday through Friday type of job
you can work at one of the surgery centers, which is more of that Monday through Friday, that 8-4,
no weekends, no call, type of employment.
So really just depends on what you're looking for.
The HACC surgical technology program is accredited through the accreditation review council.
It shows the community that we meet national standards.
HACC's surgical technology program is five semesters
and you do begin in the spring semester.
You apply, every fall we take a new class.
Once you are accepted into the program, it is a late start in February.
And then we do go all year round now,
so beginning the spring, summer, fall, spring, and summer again.
You are able to take your prereqs at the other campuses with HACC,
however once you are in the program, it is only at the Harrisburg campus,
so you will have to drive here for lecture and lab.
As far as our clinical externship, they are locally,
we do try to place you within an hour of your home.
You will receive your associate's degree in applied science with our program,
and again the opportunity to be certified
within the National Board of Surgical Technologists and Surgical Assisting before you graduate.
The salary in central Pennsylvania right now is around $23 an hour.
As we stated though, you do have the opportunity with overtime and call and holiday pay.
This is a very high demand growing career.
Hi, i'm Kaitlyn Vaitl and I am the clinical coordinator for the HACC surgical technology program.
Today I'm going to talk to you about our lab for the surgical technology students.
First things first, before we can even enter an operating room like this,
we have to have the proper attire.
We would have eye protection, which are glasses
or it could be a face shield that is attached to a mask.
We'll have a surgical mask for our face, a bouffant cap for our head.
We need shoe covers. We'll have our OR scrubs.
Another part of attire is making sure we have a hairstyle that is a conservative color, style.
Another thing that you'll notice is scrub techs don't have pretty nails, we have short nails.
We're not allowed to wear gel polish.
Surg techs, you'll see, other than my little wristband,
you're not supposed to wear any watches, bracelets, necklaces, earrings,
earrings can be okay if it's just kept to a simple post, nothing that hangs below the earlobe.
You don't want to have any excessive makeup on while you're in the operating room,
and also no perfumes.
Now that we're all dressed up and ready to go to the lab,
what HACC does here is we provide mock surgeries for our students,
so we pretend to do a surgical setup for a specific procedure
and that will help them develop the skills before they even go to the hospital setting.
So to do that we have them learn how to clean instruments, wrap them,
and how they get sterilized, so that they are ready to use in the operating room.
We have them learn where to go to pick the supplies that they need for their cases,
how to put supplies away that we didn't use for the day,
how to return dirty instruments to the cleaning room,
we teach them how to do a surgical setup for the back table and also for our mayo stand.
So part of doing the mock surgeries
is we try to keep our lab as real to the hospital operating room as possible.
So overall the role of a surgical technologist is to really
set up the operating room for our patient and deliver safe and effective care.
HACC does have open houses every fall and spring,
so just continue to look on the HACC website for the specific dates.
Also if you look at our website, HACC surgical technology,
it does have on there some helpful information as far as applications, the information session,
and, you know, typical courses that you have to take, and also a breakdown of the expenses.
And thank you and hopefully you'll come see us in lab and we'll give you a good tour.