Assisting Surgeries Right from the Start
It's 10am and Surgical Technology student Alysha Hawkins has been sent to an emergency case at Parkview Hospital. A tractor trailer jack-knifed and the driver was pinned underneath the wreck. "Let's just say that I had to be alert, because anything could have gone wrong at any time," Alysha states. This is just one experience students in USF's Surgical Technology program may encounter in their clinical sessions at area hospitals.
Students in the Surgical Technology program at USF don't just sit in lectures or read textbooks. They get hands on experience in the state-of-the-art Surgical Technology Lab, where they learn and familiarize themselves with instrumentation and equipment from all surgical specialties. Here they learn how to properly scrub, gown, and glove, set up instruments, practice passing instruments, and even suturing techniques by using pigs' feet. "In our lab sessions we learn sets of tools that are required for each different case. We practice each set up and learn what tools go with each and all the supplies needed. Instead of reading and trying to visualize, our lab gives us the opportunity to practice it like it was in real life," Hawkins said.
Additionally, students partake in 4 semesters of clinical sessions at Lutheran, Parkview, and other area hospitals and surgery centers in Fort Wayne. Here, they observe actual surgery teams and see what it's like in a real operating room. Beginning with the very first semester, students begin assisting with surgeries and experience everything from tonsillectomies to open heart surgery. USF instructors are always present during these times for guidance and to provide encouragement.
According to Hawkins, "Without having a lab or lecture class we wouldn't be able to go right in and be expected to know everything. We are taught why things are done the way they are, what each tool does, not just the name of it. This is how it prepared me to work in the hospital in our clinicals. Reading and taking tests from the book, practicing it in lab, then doing it in the hospital. It gives us three ways of practicing and learning. It is a great opportunity and a great program."
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Previously Featured
- Assisting Surgeries Right from the Start
- Internally Auditing a Fortune 500 Company
- Respecting creation and using resources wisely
- Journey of a Lifetime
- Bringing Travels Back to the Classroom
- When Ice Cream and Accounting Go Hand in Hand
- Sowing Seeds of Peace
- Students on Pilgrimage to Assisi and Rome
- The Birthplace of an Ocean
- Serving One Another, Society, & the Church
- Our students try to give of themselves, “from head to toe.”
- Hands-on Learning with a Professional Artist