In hunt for future surgical technologists, Avera Queen of Peace turns to apprenticeship program

MITCHELL — Angela Teel has been the nurse manager for the operating room at Avera Queen of Peace Hospital for the better part of a decade. And in those years, she has almost always been short of personnel for a very important staff role.

Surgical technologists, who assist doctors with their work in the operating room, have been in short supply for years at the local hospital and others like it across the country.

“In the nine years I’ve been nurse manager here, we’ve been fully staffed with surgical technicians for one week,” Teel told the Mitchell Republic in a recent interview. “Typically we have 10, and one week we had 10. And then life happened and that tech had to leave prematurely. So we’ve been struggling.”

The skilled professionals who prepare and hand instruments to doctors, prepare the operating room for procedures and get patients ready for surgery are vital to a smooth-running operating room, and many of those professionals have entered retirement age or left the profession due to COVID-19. They work with individual doctors to learn their preferences and are the right-hand assistants to surgeons performing everything from cataract to heart surgery.

On average, about 8,600 job openings are projected in the United States each year across the next decade for surgical technologists and assistants, according to

estimates

from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Avera Queen of Peace has had an ongoing need for surgical technologists, and a recent partnership between the hospital and Stat605, a surgical technology apprenticeship training program, is opening up a new pathway for those interested in the profession to learn on the job while they complete the necessary curriculum to become certified in the field.

The program just saw its most recent graduate take her position among the hospital staff, and hospital officials are hoping it continues to be a strong feeder system for the vital professionals.

Erin Howardson, the founder of Stat605, said she established the program after having worked as a surgical technologist for 27 years.

“I was teaching at a college in Minnesota during COVID-19 and I had to transition it into online. And ever since then I thought there is such a steady decrease of surgical techs graduating, so why not try to see what I could do to incorporate help for more hospitals and help students who aren’t able to go on to a surgery tech program,” Howardson said.

She began working with the United States Department of Labor and came up with a registered program that allows potential surgical technologists to study courses online while simultaneously serving an apprenticeship with partnering hospitals. Facilities become registered through the USDOL, and once approved, selects, hires and employs the apprentice full-time.

The apprentice works alongside an experienced surgical technologist learning hands-on skills while completing their coursework outside the job through Stat605. After successful completion and meeting the requirements for the National Center for Competency Testing, the apprentice can apply for national certification. The hospitals generally pay for the apprentices to take the program and the apprentice agrees to work with that particular hospital for a set period, guaranteeing the hospital a newly-trained surgical technologist and giving the student a chance to kickstart a career without the challenges that come with a traditional classroom setting.

That’s important for rural hospitals like Avera Queen of Peace, many of which rely on traveling surgical technicians that may work at more than one hospital. The hospital usually performs around 15 to 20 surgeries a day.

McKenna Carpenter, a 2018 Mitchell High School graduate looking for a career change, connected with Avera Queen of Peace and Stat605.

“I didn’t think I was going to be here. I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” McKenna admits. “(But) I always knew I wanted to do something in medicine.”

Carpenter is the most recent graduate of the program at Avera Queen of Peace, after having dived headlong into the training and the job itself. She had previously worked in surgical technology in Parkston, where she took part in another on-the-job-training program. But the hospital did not often perform surgeries, a process she enjoyed and was hoping to do more of.

She enrolled in the Stat605 program, which is a one-year, full-time experience balanced between working with mentors at the hospital and studying online courses, which were created and are presented by Howardson herself.

Carpenter said she has benefited from numerous facets of the program. With other training opportunities located outside the community, including at tech schools in Sioux Falls, Watertown and Rapid City, the Stat605 program allowed her to live and work in Mitchell, her hometown. The program is streamlined to be centric to surgical technology, with emphasis on classes like microbiology, anatomy and physiology and less on traditional core classes such as English to go along with the specific training.

And since Carpenter is working at the same hospital full-time every day, she could apply her lessons immediately as well as integrate herself into a hospital system smoothly. The ability to perform her clinical work during the day during the program gave her the hands-on experience she would need, and she also had a guaranteed job at the hospital after passing her coursework.

Howardson said the result is a well-trained and confident surgical tech that hospitals like Avera Queen of Peace so desperately need. The program’s efficiency allows students like Carpenter to advance quickly.

“With an apprenticeship they are doing clinicals all day, every day for eight hours while working, and we’re finding that students are catching on much faster,” Howardson said.

It’s a demanding job, requiring a self-motivated, detail-oriented person willing to occasionally work odd hours. A day shift may be slow, but surgical technologists are often on call for certain shifts, meaning they head to the hospital at any time of night to assist with emergency calls.

It’s not necessarily a career choice for everyone, but Carpenter has embraced it fully. She admits she was not a big test-taker in her school days, but the instruction style of Stat605 and the support she got from her co-workers at Avera Queen of Peace bolstered her confidence and excitement.

The work is satisfying, and even rushing to the hospital in the middle of the night has become appealing, she said.

“I worked until 3 a.m. last night. I personally like being on call. Some people think it’s weird, and in the beginning I didn’t like it,” Carpenter said. “But now that I’m on my own and have worked at night, I really like it. I get to see the interesting cases come in and help that patient. It’s a nice outcome.”

The Stat605 program has been a positive for Avera Queen of Peace and its staffing issues. Teel said the program is well-balanced, mixing solid instruction with on-site clinical work, and graduates like Carpenter are a testament to the quality professionals that can come out of the program.

It’s a partnership that has benefited everyone, she said.

“It’s been a blessing, absolutely,” Teel said. “We’ve had on-the-job training students before, but they didn’t have the curriculum part to go with it. So they had the hands-on feel but they didn’t have the knowledge. When Erin reached out, we jumped right on board, because we needed the help.”

Teel said the hospital also welcomes traditional path students who have graduated from technical colleges, many through the Build Dakota Scholarship Program, and as with others they are happy to have them.

But the apprenticeship program has been a godsend so far, she said. The hospital is still waiting to welcome its next apprentice into the fold, but she said working with Stat605 has had particular benefits.

“We do partner with surgery tech schools in the state, but this program enhances that. We can get them set with everything they need here while they’re learning. And it does decrease the amount of time for that orientation,” Teel said.

Howardson is also a hands-on instructor. In addition to creating the online curriculum program, she consults with students throughout the program who have questions. They have her cell number, and she encourages them to call her if they need to. She noted she had just taken two calls from students that morning, one in Fargo, North Dakota and one in Brainerd, Minnesota who had questions for her.

Having that connection helped her absorb the material, Carpenter said.

“She was available if I had questions at 8 p.m., and I’d text her throughout the day. I could call or text, which is really nice, because I don’t feel like you get that in a classroom setting,” Carpenter said.

Howardson said the program has been well-received by both hospitals and students, and she hopes to make adjustments and to continue spreading the word about the alternative pathway to a career in surgery technology.

It’s a great career, she said, and she knows there are more potential good fits if they’re willing to consider it.

“(I plan to) keep growing it and working with the Department of Labor and help more facilities keep students who want to be a surgical tech. It’s a great career and there is such a high-demand for it right now,” Howardson said. “There is a need, especially in rural communities.”

Carpenter, the second student to go through the program in South Dakota, is now working full-time at Avera Queen of Peace and has no plans to leave anytime soon. She agreed that there is deep potential for those who are willing to put in some hard work and who love helping others.

She said she knows others can find a career to be passionate about through Stat605. After all, she did it herself.

“I love my job. I can’t say anything bad about it,” Carpenter said. “I love it. I go home (after work) and talk about it all the time.”

More information on Stat605 can be found at stat605.com.

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