Newsletter

By Katie Richie, BS, CHL, CIS, CRCST, CSPDT, CST Healthcare practitioners say that the sterile processing department is the heart of the hospital–without it, everything fails within the hospital. Similarly, surgical technologists depend on the work of sterile processing technicians, as the relationship between the operating room and sterile processing department is critically important. I believe that students who complete [...]

ARC/STSA would like to congratulate the surgical technology programs that have recently received awards of initial and continuing accreditation. Please join us in acknowledging the dedication and hard work it took for these programs to reach these critical milestones. Surgical Technology Initial Accreditation Award: Carrington College, Phoenix, AZ Baptist Health Sciences University, Memphis, TN Surgical Technology Continuing Accreditation Award: Coastal Pines Technical [...]

Our golden anniversary year is coming to an end, but stories of our longest continuously-accredited programs will continue. Stay tuned for more in 2023, and enjoy these stories of four programs each accredited for more than four decades. Featured in this issue are the surgical technology programs at Parkland College, Champaign, IL; Ivy Tech Community College, Lafayette, IN; Southeast Community [...]

By Chris Ahearn, AAS, CST When I transitioned from the OR to a program director position at a new surgical technology program, I wanted to learn all I could about how to create and maintain a successful program. As educators across the country pursue excellence every day and successfully graduate competent, entry-level surgical technologists, the ARC/STSA and EdAccred continue to [...]

By Jerad Claytor, MSHE, CST From the exciting Hands-On Learning Lab and collaborative Round Table Discussions to the accreditation-focused presentations and ending with an AFE Workshop, the first AccredX conference held October 6-8 was a HIT! Educators from across the country were able to listen, learn, share, and network with colleagues to better improve their time in the classroom… and [...]

By Chris Ahearn, AAS, CSTThe June ARC/STSA newsletter highlighted ways that the surgical technology community might help to solve some difficult scenarios encountered when considering surgery in space. But surgical technologists’ out-of-this-world skills also have applications a little closer to home – the past years have brought a surge of growth to the telemedicine, telesurgery, and robotics fields.Telemedicine can be defined [...]

ARC/STSA would like to congratulate the surgical technology programs that have recently received awards of initial and continuing accreditation. Please join us in acknowledging the dedication and hard work it took for these programs to reach these critical milestones. Surgical Technology Initial Accreditation Award: Camden County College, Blackwood, NJ Concorde Career College, Memphis, TN The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN Surgical [...]

By Ron Kruzel, MA, CAE, CST, FAST, ARC/STSA Executive Director Greetings to all, and I hope your summer is off to an amazing start! For two long years, our education community has learned to live in the new reality of a world with COVID, responding with amazing agility and resilience and adapting in a moment’s notice to the ever-changing landscape [...]

By Chris Ahearn, AAS, CST, and featuring Dr. Josef F. Schmid, III With an early 2030 launch date planned for mankind’s first mission to Mars, NASA flight surgeons and their teams have been hard at work. With 240 days between liftoff and touchdown, crews onboard are susceptible to all manner of human maladies. From headaches to bone resorption, acute appendicitis [...]