Meeting & Agendas

Rachel Fling, St. David’s North Austin Medical Center, acted as chairperson and called the meeting to order at 1:00pm. Carol welcomed all to the meeting, thanking them for their time and commitment to our program. All present then introduced themselves.

1. Rachel Fling asked if the program needs any items that could be donated by the clinical partners. The faculty responded that the program can always use the following items: video systems (camera, scope), soft goods, hema clip appliers, racks (blue and red), microscope, c-arm drapes, lead aprons, space suits (helmets). 2. Laura Vela, Seton Medical Center, brought up hiring policies. The CST exam is taken at the end of the 3rd semester and then it’s several weeks before the certification is received. A graduate can’t apply or be hired until they are certified. It seems a long time between graduation and certification. Rachel Fling shared that she reached out to her recruitment team and notified them to not turn away recent graduates. The electronic application process is rigid and has complicated graduates being able to meet the CST job requirement and applications are automatically rejected by the system. Seton has a “graduate nurse position” for applicants who are eligible to take the exam and perhaps that could also be designed within the hiring companies’ application systems for surgical technologists. 3. Carol Hamilton, ACC Surgical Technology Department Chair, announced that the Dell Medical School Open House is May 13, 2017 and invited all present to attend. The facility will open on May 21, 2017. 4. Gretchen Riehl, ACC Associate Vice President of Workforce Education, elaborated on her new position with the college. She has a background in health sciences and is excited to be at Austin Community College. Dr. Riehl thanked the committee members for their time input explaining that it’s important for ACC to know what is needed from our student for them to be successful in their careers and in the community. This partnership is valuable. Are we teaching the right things? She encouraged committee members to return surveys because their feedback is a valuable tool as we move forward. 4. Associate Professor Susan Diamond introduced the topic of how to best inform our students of best OR practices in each facility since there are differences between each facility. St. David’s plans to implement an onboarding program for new hire surgical technologists in July 2017. Seton does onboarding with students when in the clinical experience. 5. Nan Walters announced that the Highland Campus is building a simulation lab that will include an Operating Room. Design is currently in progress. The OR lab will include a surgery suite and faculty will be involved in selecting equipment. The lab will also include an Emergency Room, Critical Care areas, OB Room, etc. so that a “mock hospital” setting is available and intra-professional collaboration will be possible. One challenge is how fast technology changes. The Highland Campus also has the country’s largest computer lab with 604 computers. Health Science departments will not move to the Highland Campus but will have full use of the facilities. We appreciate our clinical agencies and thank you for your time. 6. Tony DeDominico, Dell Children’s Medical Center introduced the topic of sharps safety by asking if there is more we can do to reduce incidents. Carol Hamilton stated that the program drills sharp/hypo safety instruction. Dr. Tim Falkenberry, general surgeon, expressed the opinion that everyone caps and asked each facility to state their policy. Dr. Falkenberry further stated that the consensus policy seemed to be “no cap” so why does he see sharps capping all the time. Discussion ensued that conflicting policies to cap or not cap creates an environment of needle sticks and when that happens the student fails for that week. Carol Hamilton offered to provide copies of the program’s instruction on this issue but policies differ at each facility and even within a specific facility. This is a confusing issue for all concerned and deserving of further discussion and resolution. 7. Tony DeDominico asked about counts instruction. Carol Hamilton responded that we teach AORN and AST standards. But site specifics exist and we also inform students of the site’s specifics. It was suggested that each facility review their policy in the clinical onboarding/orientation/welcoming session. 8. Tony DeDominico asked if there is a universal protocol on sign out/debrief? Is anyone doing this? We will incorporate this practice and Tony will send more information to assist in this process. CONCLUSIONS We will continue teaching recapping as set by AORN and AST standards. We request that facilities provide copies of their policies to share with our students. The committee members will meet in smaller groups to further discuss further sharps safety, counts and sign out. The program will send out a poll to establish meeting dates in late August - September. ACTION ITEMS Send poll for meeting dates PERSON RESPONSIBLE Carol Hamilton & Sherry Niven

TBD (this same time next year) Meeting adjourned at 2:42 pm

Program evaluations were sent via Survey Monkey to 23 students with August 2016 and December 2016 graduation dates. Each member received a copy of the survey results. Professor Hamilton thanked our clinical partners for their equipment and supply donations specifically mentioning the microscopes. As discussed in last year’s Advisory Committee Meeting the program has incorporated tutoring for 2nd and 3rd semester students. Adjunct faculty will serve as tutors. CONCLUSIONS The program will continue to work on instrumentation.

Professor Hamilton distributed clinical site evaluations in individual envelopes and stated that students have had great experiences in their clinical experiences and thanked our partners for their commitment to the program. Time was allotted for committee members to review their evaluations.

Professor Hamilton directed the committee’s attention to the handout with Certified Surgical Technologist Examination Results for 2016. Twenty six graduates took the national exam, 23 passed with 2 being repeat candidates for an 88% success rate. The national average is 79%. First time candidates successfully passing the exam were 23 out of 24 for 96% pass rate and a national average of 67%. Rachel Fling commented that these are great results and is reflected in the quality of our students entering the workforce.

Professor Hamilton announced the implementation of the new degree plan for fall 2017 noting a slight decline in applications due to the change from BIOL 2404 Introduction to Anatomy & Physiology (1 course) to BIOL 2401 Anatomy & Physiology I and BIOL 2402 Anatomy & Physiology II (2 courses). The drop in applications was expected. We do not currently have a wait list for fall 2017. Anatomy & Physiology I and II are required for many 4 year degree plans. The change in our degree plan will better serve our students, both those planning on continuing their education and those going directly into the workforce. We now require a minimum 2.7 GPA in courses that apply to the Surgical Technology AAS degree plan. The TEAS test was also added as an application requirement for admission. The TEAS test results will be used for academic counseling/evaluation and tutoring. CONCLUSIONS Applications are expected to increase as students have more time to complete all 6 prerequisite courses.

A Faculty and PAC Resource Assessment report for Spring 2017 was prepared for the committee. The program has acquired new OR beds and a laparoscopic simulator at the Eastview campus. The Round Rock campus has a lap simulator. Associate Pedro (Pete) Barrera gave the committee a demonstration of the lap simulator. Most essential skills for students are camera navigation and instrumentation transfer. He also demonstrated a gall bladder operation. This equipment is available to students to practice during open lab time. CONCLUSIONS The laparoscopic simulators are valuable assets for our students.

Professor Cook announced that the program is implementing strategies to streamline the process to distribute and receive replies by using the Survey Monkey tool. One faculty will be assigned to track students’ employment. We will send out surveys soon using this method with our accrediting body changing the survey timeline from 9 months after graduation to as soon as you find out a student is employed. Professor Cook emphasized that the satisfaction scale is 0 - 5, with 0 being not satisfied and 5 being extremely satisfied. ACTION ITEMS Assign tasks to faculty and staff and send surveys as soon as possible. Track responses in a timely manner. PERSON RESPONSIBLE TBD in department meeting scheduled for 5/1/17

Professor Kathy Baumbach reported to the committee that a 2009 law was passed requiring surgical technologist to be certified. But surgical technologists who were working prior to 2009 were grandfathered in and were not required to be certified. House Bill 2418 has been introduced in legislation that non-certified surgical technologists employed by a healthcare facility shall be required to complete 15 hours of continuing education each year and submit evidence of the satisfactory completion to the facility. CE each year and hospital responsible. The Association of Surgical Assistants and Surgical Technologists promoted the bill. HB 2418 was pending on April 18 and the current legislative session ends May 29. This does not currently impact Certified Surgical Technologists. CONCLUSIONS HB 2418 may or may not be acted upon in this session. ACTION ITEMS Contact Representatives Scott Cosper and Tom Oliverson, authors of the bill, if interested in voicing an opinion. PERSON RESPONSIBLE All committee members

The Health Science Open House is an annual event in its 2nd year. Carol Hamilton invited Nan Walters, Associate Dean, Health Sciences Division, to give a report on this year’s activities. The 2017 Open House was held at the Eastview Campus on Saturday, February 25th, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm. Response this year was amazing with over 500 people from the community visiting our Eastview health science facilities. Faculty and students were present in classrooms and labs to represent each department with program information, simulations and to answer any questions. CONCLUSIONS The 2017 Open House was a success. ACTION ITEMS Open Houses are scheduled for Saturday, February 24, 2018 and Saturday, February 23, 2019. PERSON RESPONSIBLE Nan Walters, Coordinator