Newsletters

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Clinical Nurse Educator Renegade (Ren) Scott-Feagle, MSN/Ed, BSHS/M, RN, CNOR, and Traveling Certified Surgical Technologist Silviana Vina, BS, CST, who worked together as colleagues at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada (UMCSN) in Las Vegas, Nevada, share their thoughts on the shortage of surgical technologists and their crucial intraoperative role. Ren Scott-Feagle (RSF): Silviana, thank you so much [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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… [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

By ARC/STSA Accreditation Team As you celebrate the success of student graduations and look forward to the well-deserved summer break, we wanted to remind you about several accreditation documents with an August 1, 2022, effective date; including the new Standards and Guidelines for the Accreditation of Educational Programs in Surgical Technology (Standards), the Core Curriculum for Surgical Assisting, 4th [...]

The ARC/STSA is proud to announce its 2022 scholarship recipients. This year, ARC/STSA awarded 10 student scholarships of $500 each and one $1,000 educator scholarship. Join us in celebrating these accomplished recipients, shared below, and stay tuned for more information about their stories throughout the summer. You can also learn more about the recipients on the scholarship page of [...]

By Amy Broussard, AAS, CHL, CSFA, CRCST, CST, FAST, and Eboni Saurage, EdD, CST, FAST The Association of Surgical Technologists (AST) held its 52nd Surgical Technology Conference in New Orleans, LA, on June 3-5, 2022. The conference drew more than 1,200 enthusiastic active and associate members which included many educators, students and recent graduates. We reached out to learn [...]

What is AccredX and what makes it different from other conferences? AccredX is the first annual conference designed to support our 400+ surgical technology and surgical assisting programs with accreditation-focused continuing education. AccredX offers hands-on workshops, proven program management strategies, and best practices in surgical technology and surgical assisting education, to provide educators with the necessary tools to achieve [...]

ARC/STSA is proud to celebrate our golden anniversary this year – 50 years of accreditation and education excellence. This year we’ll be looking back at the last five decades — from our humble beginnings in December 1972 as the Joint Review Committee on Educational Programs for the Operating Room Technician (JRC-ORT) to today, as we provide national accreditation services [...]

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: Ozarka College, Mountain View, AR Surgical Technology Continuing Accreditation Award: Central Piedmont Community College, Charlotte, NC [...]

By Rebecca Hall, MS, CRCST, CSA, CST, FAST Recognized for the sixth consecutive year as a tech-savvy college by the Center for Digital Education, Delta College incorporates technology to improve curriculum delivery and service across its programs.  Following this tradition, our surgical first assistant and surgical technology programs were the first in the state of Michigan to use the [...]

Featuring Erin White-Mincarelli, PhD, CST, FAST Dr. Erin White-Mincarelli, surgical technology program director at Montgomery County Community College in Pennsylvania and ARC/STSA board member, speaks with ARC/STSA’s education coordinator, Erin Monroy, about the new Annual Report platform and provides guidance for report submission, which has been extended through August 1, 2022. Erin Monroy: How lucky am I to interview a [...]

By Jay Barrueta, AAS, CST Creativity and hands-on learning are a necessity for keeping students engaged, but what other solutions can instructors use to put our creative energy to better use and provide students the best preparation for surgery? Our program has started using Mock Medical drop-ins, trainers, and laparoscopic tower to give students a realistic surgical simulation experience [...]

By Chris Ahearn, AAS, CST Surgical Technology educators from around the country met virtually on February 24 for our third Better Together brainstorming event of 2022. Recruiting and retaining top surgical technology students was on everyone’s mind, and the ideas shared will help shape the future of surgical technology education for the betterment of our students, our programs, and especially [...]

The ARC/STSA is honored to join the Association of Surgical Assistants and the National Surgical Assistant Association this week, April 18 -22, 2022, to pay tribute to surgical assistants during National Surgical Assistants Week. Many thanks to each of you for your hard work, long hours and fervent commitment to patient safety. We would also like to express our gratitude [...]

By Tracey Houston, CSFA, CST The Third Annual Joint Conference of the Association of Surgical Assistants and National Surgical Assistant Association took place on April 1-2 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference offered a range of workshops and discussions on emerging trends in the world of surgical assisting, including scientific presentations, multi-station workshops featuring the latest in surgical techniques, and [...]