A glorious end was in sight for a crop of surgical technologist students at Salt Lake Community College this past spring – poised to perform their hard-earned skills in clinical rotations before taking the national board exam. Then everything shut down or was moved to remote instruction in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinicals would have to wait.
Awful. Disappointing. They are words Emily Johnson and Bridget Loggins use to describe having their plans blown out of the water. For Emily, who has a four-year-old daughter, she saw money set aside for bills start to dwindle as one month of waiting turned into three. The protracted pause put a wrench in Bridget’s family life, trying to juggle logistics for three children, ages 4, 8 and 14. “I was anxious to finish and start working,” Bridget says.
The road to becoming a surgical technologist at SLCC is designed to take about 10 months. With early enrollment, students can begin the surgical tech track while still in high school, and the total program cost by graduation is about $5,000, which includes tuition and fees. Working techs then create and maintain the so-called “sterile field” for surgeries and pass instruments to doctors during operations under the supervision of registered nurses. They work in hospitals, for private practices and in surgical clinics.
“There are placement opportunities for any surgical tech student who wants a job in Utah,” says Jana Mitchell, an SLCC assistant professor of surgical technology. “Most of our recent students had already accepted a job before graduation. Those who waited until graduation to apply were able to pick which benefits packages and schedules work best for them between the three to five job offers they received.”
The median pay across the country for surgical technologists is about $23 per hour or $48,000 per year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, there are over 110,000 surgical techs, with an expected job growth of about 7 percent through 2029. As of May 2019, the Bureau reports there were over 1,100 surgical techs working in Utah, tallying an annual mean wage of just over $45,500. A snapshot in September 2019 taken by the Utah Department of Workforce Services showed there were 405 openings for surgical technologists in Utah, with 240 in Salt Lake County alone.
SLCC has helped keep the surgical tech pipeline into the workforce flowing, before and during the pandemic. The college’s traditional 10-month program saw an increase from 21 applicants in 2019 to 31 in 2020 – early enrollment also saw an increase. A dozen students graduated this month with another 31 in early and traditional cohorts currently making their way through SLCC’s tech programs. This year SLCC took an extra step to keep its traditional program robust during challenging times by taking part in the COVID-19 Displaced Worker Grant Program for its fall 2020 admissions. Grant monies covered 18 students’ tuition, fees, books, classroom supplies and fee for the national board exam.
Looking forward to 2021, Jana says there has been talk of expanding the current programs and possibly adding an associate’s degree track in the future. In the meantime, students receive an all-encompassing experience at SLCC, with visits from recruiters, help with mock interviews, resume writing, exam reviews and access to service-learning opportunities. During the pandemic, extra safety measures have been put in place for in-person learning in an industry that already regularly employs the use of masks, gloves, gowns and hand washing.
Bridget and Emily both graduated and say they felt safe this past year at SLCC and that any fears they might have had about COVID-19 have been allayed while working this fall in the field. “I like knowing what the surgeon needs,” says Bridget, who is working part time for now. “It feels good to be part of a team taking care of someone.” Her children are proud that Bridget, 35, went back to school to retool herself.
Emily says she’s “high risk” when it comes to COVID-19 because of her hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic disorder that was the catalyst for her interest in medicine. She now works full time and says she feels safe in the operating room. “’Should I even continue on with this?’” she asked during her time at SLCC when the pandemic hit. “I’m really glad I did. I felt our instructors cared about our education – they wanted to see us succeed. I’m glad it all worked out.”
Jana says a decade-long shortage of surgical techs will likely continue and that more graduates are needed. “Despite the pandemic, there will always be those who need surgery in emergent, urgent or critical elective surgical cases,” she says. “We are weekly being contacted by facilities looking to hire our recent graduates.”
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