Meeting & Agendas

Carol Hamilton called the meeting to order at 1:05 pm. Introductions were made. Tony DeDominico, acting Chairperson, thanked all for attending and introduced the first presenter.

The Faculty and PAC Resource Assessment for Spring 2018 was included in the meeting packet and each member was asked to complete the assessment as required by the Surgical Technology program’s accrediting bodies. Members were requested to rank items such as program goals, budget, facilities and equipment, instructional resources, clinical sites, faculty and staff on a scale from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest). The results will enable the program to improve on any areas noted to need improvement. ACTION ITEM: Collect member responses

The date of the next meeting is to be determined. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:50 pm.

The 2017 clinical site evaluations were distributed to the members present. The evaluations for those members not present will be mailed. Program evaluations are required by our accrediting agencies, the Accreditation Review Committee – Surgical Technology (ARCST) and the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP). Survey Monkey is the data collection instrument used for Program Evaluations. Members reviewed the August 2017 (6 respondents) and December 2017 (9 respondents) graduate surveys. Overall, respondents were satisfied, very satisfied or extremely satisfied. Obstacles to collecting the data include: o survey cannot be administered until after students graduate o The program is making every attempt to release the survey soon after graduation o obtaining better contact information by collecting personal email addresses o lack of interest o emphasizing to students that their opinions are important to the continued success of the program The following were some suggested approaches and comments: o assigning a faculty partner/advocate to each student to follow up personally o distributing the survey immediately after graduation may result in students not yet having had time to secure employment o return of completed program evaluations has been a long-standing issue for all health science programs o An incentive, like a gift card with a deadline, was suggested and received well by those in attendance The Chairperson commented that he would like to have more students attend clinical at Dell Children’s if they can satisfy the requirements needed.

Clinical Site Evaluations were distributed at the beginning of the meeting (see Item 2 above).

The NBSTSA School Performance Report for the Certified Surgical Technologist Examination for the period 8/1/2017 – 1/1/2018 was reviewed. Thirty first-time candidates took the exam and 28 passed with a successful pass rate of 93%, which is higher than the national mean of 67%.

The program admits 40 students each year with 24 admitted in the fall semester and 16 admitted in the spring semester. Attrition varies but most common reasons are skills or personal issues. ACTION ITEM: The program will prepare a report on attrition and enrollment to be presented at the next meeting. It was reported that the number of surgical technology program applications has dropped significantly. Discussion and questions ensued and the following points and comments were made: o Health Science Division lost their dedicated counselor which may be impacting enrollment.no o The Health Sciences Dean reported that many changes have occurred college wide that could be a factor and that she is requesting funds for a Retention Coordinator in her budget for next year. o The college administration currently supports surgical technology program enrollment lower than the minimum in recognition of the community demand for surgical technologists. Minimum is 65% of target enrollment. o Consider becoming active in recruitment at high schools via presentations, video and social media. o ACC’s Marketing Department targeted the Surgical Technology program last year. o The program was marketed in AOS orientation sessions for incoming students. o The Health Science Division hosts a Saturday open house for the community at the Eastview campus each year and the college conducts an annual open house at the Highland campus that is represented and attended by all Health Science programs. o ACC is active in high school outreach but the effort does not focus on specific programs. o ACC offers several options to earn college credits in high school including Dual Credit, Early College High School and Career Academy. LBJ High School, in partnership with Seton, is in the process of establishing a General Studies in Pre-Health Science Associate Degree program. o Surgical Technologists earn significantly less than other health science professions that require either the same or less rigorous pre-requisite courses. ACTION ITEM: Follow up on presentation of a mock surgery/Q&A for all Health Science AOS advisors. There followed a roundtable discussion on the necessity of Pharmacology as a program prerequisite since pharmacology is taught within the program curriculum. The question was raised of whether the difficulty of this course and resulting pass rates could be a possible factor in the low application numbers. The general consensus was that HPRS 2300 Pharmacology for Health Professions was relevant to other Health Science programs but not to surgical technology and that the pharmacology taught within the program and is good and sufficient in meeting professional needs. ACTION ITEM: Consider reporting on the number of students that do not pass pharmacology and try to determine if this course is a factor in low enrollment. A question was raised concerning the opportunity students have to experience all procedures within the clinical framework of the program and the role of robotic surgery in the profession. In response, it was declared that the Surgical Technology Program is regulated by accreditation rules and related that the clinical instructor’s willingness to work with students was also a factor. Robotics is an ever-increasing and widespread surgical practice in Austin which can limit the opportunity to observe procedures and learn open surgery skills. Students feel that open surgery is what they need to learn in the program and that robotics skills can be learned once employed. The program does not have a model robotic arm in its inventory but students went on a recent field trip to observe robotics. CONCLUSION: The members agreed that open surgery skills are critical to hiring managers. The Chairperson raised the question of whether or not students have the ability to upload and view images on the cloud. The program response was not at this time because of HIPAA and FERPA but will research the issue because it’s used at Dell Seton Medical Center UT and could be utilized for anatomy and surgical procedures.

The Faculty and PAC Resource Assessment Spring 2018 Report was presented and it was noted that identical resources are at both campuses. The Department Chair expressed gratitude for items donated in the past by our clinical partners. The Health Sciences Dean reminded the faculty that Perkins Grant applications are available to request special equipment. A committee member provided the input that knowing how to save and send images to the cloud is useful in the field and that the program might consider obtaining resources to enable students to practice this process during lab times. Faculty related that a full rigid scope set was needed for instruction. ACTION ITEM: The program will send members a wish list of items needed.

An update was provided on the actions of the Sharps Safety Committee that was established as a result of discussion from the 2017 Surgical Technology Advisory Committee Meeting. The committee is a collaboration of representatives from the surgical technology program faculty and community clinical partners. The committee presented and shared a document titled “Guidelines for Sharps Safety”. Emphasis was placed on the document as guidelines and not as policy since policy, if not followed, requires punitive measures and, as a result, employees could be reluctant to report incidents. The challenge is for the guidelines concerning the recap process to be main stream. Recap processes change from operating room to operating room within the same facility resulting in confusion for students. There was discussion and the following points were made: o most challenging guidelines to follow/learn are to (1) count suture needles with an instrument to avoid finger contact and (2) to handle one sharp at a time. o do not reach for a sharp to take it from another person but, rather, all sharps need to be set down before being picked up to help avoid accidents. o most everyone agreed that a hypo should not be recapped unless absolutely necessary and only using the one hand scoop method. ACTION ITEM: Community partners were encouraged to share the document with their staff and to report their input.

The next item presented was an update on legislative news. Non-certified surgical technologists are currently not required to have continuing education (CE) hours. The Association of Surgical Technologists (AST) submitted a bill to the Texas Legislature to require non-certified surgical technologists to complete continuing education (CE) hours; however, the bill was dropped from the agenda in the current session.

The 3rd annual ACC Health Sciences Division Open House was held February 24, 2018 with over 600 people from the community attending. The Surgical Technology program had 2 mock operating rooms set up. The Open House continues to be a successful and growing event.