DEVILS LAKE, N.D. — The first students from Lake Region State College’s surgical technology program have passed their certification exams and graduated, moving on to work in the region.
Dawn Williams, lead of the program, said the students have done well and that Altru, the partner on the program, has been great to partner with.
“They’re big advocates of the program,” she said.
The six students were celebrated at Altru Tuesday, July 28, with the operating room staff putting on a potluck for the first cohort. Five of the graduates plan to continue working with Altru, both in Grand Forks and Devils Lake, while another plans to work in northwest Minnesota.
Surgical technologists work in the operating room, gathering equipment and supplies before surgery and assisting the surgeon through surgery, as well as cleaning up after the procedure to re-sterilize instruments and prepare for the next surgery.
The surg tech certificate program LRSC,
, involves online courses focused on topics like anatomy, psychology, medical terminology, pathophysiology and microbiology. The program has an apprenticeship educational model, which means the students work as apprentices under surg techs at Altru while they take their online courses. Four of the six graduates went through the apprenticeship, while two were traditional students. The apprentices are paid for their work and have a two-year commitment to Altru after completing the program.
Williams said the apprentices have to scrub in on a minimum of 125 cases.
The model is similar to the
program at LRSC, which was created to alleviate the state’s nursing shortage.
A press release about the class’s graduation said the surg tech program is designed to meet real workforce needs while giving the students clear and supported routes into high-demand healthcare careers.
“This is exactly what we hoped this program would do,” said Carmen Simone, LRSC president, in the release. “These graduates are trained, tested, employed and ready to contribute in the operating room. We are proud of them, and we are grateful to Altru for being such a strong partner in making this program possible.”
The program was initiated with Workforce Education Innovation Fund money appropriated by the North Dakota Legislature during the 2023-25 Legislative Assembly, of which LRSC was awarded $1 million to expand its allied health apprenticeship programs. LRSC is also using WEIF funding to launch a new medical lab technologist program this fall, also in partnership with Altru.
The upcoming surg tech cohort is almost full with six students, five of which are apprentices, which caps at 10 due to the student to instructor ratio.
Lauree Wangler, dean of nursing and allied health, said the program could grow depending on needs, but that also depends on resources and partnerships. More allied health programs could also be built in the future.
“We do community need checks and assessments and make sure that this is something that a person is going to be able to use in North Dakota,” she said.
Erin Wood, vice president of advancement, said the programs LRSC has and may have in the future are filling needs for employers, which is important to the college.
“We’re happy to partner with Altru on doing so,” she said.
Otto is the University of North Dakota reporter for the Grand Forks Herald.
