Fifteen students will begin classes in the Golden Triangle’s first surgical technology program next January.
East Mississippi Community College and Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle have entered a partnership to train students in the college’s new program as well as its paramedic program. While the courses will be taught by EMCC instructors to EMCC students, classes will be held at 515 Willowbrook Road down the street from the hospital, and students will have the opportunity to work with doctors, paramedics and surgical technologists from Baptist before graduating with Associate’s degrees in either program.
Baptist officials approached the college in February about potentially beginning a surgical technology program, said Derrick Forrester, director of surgical services at Baptist.
“We realized that surgical technologists in this area are hard to come by,” Forrester said. “(Itawamba Community College) has a surgical technology school, so does (Meridian Community College), but (most of) those techs get taken by those local hospitals. But we don’t have one here. We realized that all the people that we employed came from those two schools.”
Baptist donated the facility on Willowbrook when EMCC officials said there was no space on campus for a new program, according to an EMCC press release. The hospital also provided equipment for classrooms, including computers, a mini operating room and other supplies necessary for the program.
“In my business it’s always good to see when we have educational opportunity meet the surrounding needs of the community, and that’s what’s happening when we get this partnership together between these two groups,” said EMCC interim president Randall Bradberry at a special ribbon cutting and facility tour Tuesday morning.
Surgical technologist program
Janan Rush, the director and instructor for the surgical technology program, said the program will hold up to 15 students. The two-year program will encompass time in the classroom as well as clinicals at Baptist with surgeons and other surgical technologists or “scrub techs,” as Forrester called them. By the time they graduate, students will have an Associate’s degree in surgical technology.
Forrester called the surgical technologist the “right hand man,” working in the operating room to help assist surgeons with instrumentation and keeping a sterile environment.
Rush agreed.
“If you’ve ever seen ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, there’s a young lady behind (the surgeon) … She is basically feeding the surgeon everything he needs,” she said. “He doesn’t have to say anything to her. She’s been there long enough. She’s been trained enough, she can give it to him without him actually even asking, ‘What do we need next?'”
Rush herself has worked as a surgical technologist for nearly 10 years before becoming an instructor.
“They are very important because times can be calm in ORs, but stuff does get critical really quick,” she said. “You have to be able to be flexible and go from a calm situation to an emergency at any moment. You always have to be ready. And if you’re not ready, that will throw the surgeon off and … affects the patient after all. You have to be constantly on your game.”
Paramedic program
After being inactive for a year after losing its instructor, EMCC’s paramedic program will also be back in full swing in January, though program director and instructor Christopher Kelly said it’s the first time classes will be held at a Baptist facility.
At least six students have already signed up for the program, which can accommodate up to 10. Kelly said each of those students are already EMT-certified and can graduate the one-year program either with a certificate or, if they choose to pursue general education courses while studying, an Associate’s degree.
Kelly said the program is all about “taking the emergency room out to the streets.”
“They will have courses in cardiology, they’ll get courses in advanced airway care,… pharmacology. They’ll have courses in … how to deliver babies in the field and different OB emergencies and then dealing with sick children and injured children,” Kelly said. “They’ll obviously have extensive training in trauma — with paramedics you would assume car wrecks and falls and all those type things.”
Like the surgical technologists, the paramedic students will do clinicals with doctors and other paramedics in the hospital during their training.
“I think it’s a great opportunity here in the Golden Triangle,” Kelly said. “Obviously there’s a large population base and as with every EMS service, they’re always short handed. So the more people we can turn out who are properly trained, I think the community wins.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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Derrick Forrester
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