CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — As the healthcare industry continues to battle staffing shortages, Central Penn College is doing its part to groom the next generation of workers.
Leaders at the school have spent time talking to health care partners in the region and learning about which training and staff are needed most. Surgical technologists were at the top of the list. These are the people who assist surgeons before, during, and after surgeries, sterilizing instruments, handing them tools and keeping operations flowing smoothly.
In response, the college opened a new Surgical Technology Education Center (STEC) on campus this week.
Doug Tilley and TKS Architects donated services to help renovate the former storage building. UPMC provided a grant to support the expansion of training options for future surgical technologists. The Cumberland County Commissioners also gave a $1.4 million grant.
“You leave here with all the knowledge you need to be a surgical technologist," said Brionna Crisamore, clinical coordinator for the Surgical Technology program at Central Penn.
The center provides the school’s more than 40 surgical technology students with resources to prepare them for the real world.
“When I started here we didn’t have this space, so seeing the progression and seeing the possibilities we have now versus when I started is night and day," said Tykarra Yearby, Central Penn's Surgical Technology program director.
The center features a simulation operating room as well as scrub and storage rooms with hospital-grade sinks.
It also includes a virtual reality classroom which gives students the ability to be put into a virtual operating room.
“They’re practicing handing instruments or they’re doing procedures we do not have the capacity to do here in the lab," said Yearby.
Crisamore says the new space gives students critical experience before they dive head first into a career she believes is rewarding.
“I feel everyone who does it, you have a love for it," said Crisamore. "You’re helping people, you’re really fixing the root of their problems.”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the job outlook for surgical technologists will grow by six percent between 2021 and 2031.