by Caroline Lupfer Kurtz

Nineteen-year-old Dusty Simons wasn’t expecting to be called into action on her first day as a surgical technician-in-training at St. Patrick Hospital, but the operating team was short-staffed for a scheduled Caesarean delivery of a baby in a difficult position. So Simons got to lend a hand in the birth of a healthy boy to first-time parents.

“That was amazing, a great experience,” says Simons, a third-semester student in the surgical technology certificate program offered by UM’s College of Technology.

As part of her 18-hour-a-week clinical experience — soon to expand into a full-time internship — Simons has participated in hysterectomies, gall bladder removals, hernia repairs and laparoscopic procedures. Her duties include preparing the operating room and instruments and helping to drape the patient according to the type of operation being performed. She passes instruments, holds retractors and generally is available to do whatever is needed during surgeries, some of which last several hours. She is an indispensable part of the operating-room team.

According to COT Dean Dennis Lerum, the college’s health professions programs are becoming more and more popular. In addition to surgical technology, there are programs in medical laboratory technology, pharmacy technology, practical nursing and respiratory therapy. Both practical nursing and surgical technology will expand from certificate to two-year associate degree programs soon.

The Department of Health Professions at the college attracts applicants from all over the Northwest, Lerum says, and usually enrolls students from at least 45 of Montana’s 56 counties every year. Each program requires that students complete a certain amount of course work before moving into the clinical experiences. In the case of surgical technology, incoming students soon will be asked to add medical microbiology and writing to other core courses such as math, anatomy and medical terminology.

“As technology advances, we need more time to train students and to get through the necessary material,” explains Bobette Pattee, program director and chair of the COT health professions department.

“We hope to have it so that students who are admitted can take their core classes at whatever institution is closest to them and then come to Missoula for the specific surgical technology courses. If they can’t be here, we are going to try to have Web courses available.”

As students become educated in their chosen professions, they also provide valuable assistance in hospitals, clinics and laboratories across the state. A student in the medical laboratory technology program, for instance, might participate in an internship in Missoula, Billings, Butte, Helena, Great Falls, Kalispell or Havre. During that time the students would gain hands-on experience while helping hospital staff collect and examine blood and other fluid specimens, perform diagnostic tests and distinguish abnormal from normal test results.

“We like to be able to offer a geographic range of opportunities,” Pattee says. And as COT offers the only such training programs in the state, many health centers in Montana rely heavily on a constant supply of such helping hands. They also would like to send their own personnel to COT to become educated as clinical instructors to further support the training experience, she says.

Peggy Hubley, who guides surgical technology interns at Deaconess Billings Clinic Hospital, gives COT students glowing reviews for the critical thinking skills that the program emphasizes and actively recruits graduates for positions there.

“We’re always excited to have these students here every year,” she says. “If they like us and we like them, it can be a win-win situation because we are always looking for quality employees.”

A former Billings intern, Mandy Williams, who now works at Missoula’s St. Patrick Hospital, says that the COT program provided great training.

“You have to get to know all the doctors and their little quirks,” she says. “It’s not a stagnant job. You learn something new every day.”

For more information about the College of Technology’s health professions programs, contact Bobette Pattee at:

(406) 243-7860 or e-mail bkpattee@mssl.uswest.net.