UMMC Training Program is Preparing the Next Generation of Health Care Workers
Maryland is home to top hospitals and schools, which work together to build the next generation of health care workers. The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) is leading this effort by partnering with Edmondson-Westside High School on a Surgical Tech Training Program. This program helps students prepare to work in medicine during high school so they can graduate ready to start building their careers.
Learn more about this exciting program from the organizers and participants.
What is the Surgical Tech Training Program?
Karl Perry, Principal, Edmondson-Westside High School: The goal of this program is to educate our children to prepare them to become surgical technicians in a hospital. In the world of work, it prepares them for life. We want our children to have certification so that once they graduate, they can immediately find employment.
How does the program work?
Roy Caster, Surgical Tech Teacher, Edmondson-Westside High School: Normally you have to go to maybe a community college or some kind of trade school to get this knowledge and this education. But partnering with the University of Maryland has made it possible for kids in high school to go through an accredited program to get [health care experience] a different way.
Students first learn in the classroom, then they’re in the simulation lab, built by UMMC. There they can train with all the tools, including a high-tech mannequin. And finally, they step inside a real operating room and get to participate in 120 real cases at the University of Maryland.
How does the program impact students?
Davon Powell, Surgical Tech, UMMC: I 100% think that the surgical tech program really changes people’s lives, the perspective of people’s lives, the things you go through, things you can get.
I want to be a spine surgeon just like most of my mentors…I’ve been in their clinics, I see patients that come in like terrible, [and they] take them to the OR, and the next time you see them, they’re like, I love this guy. It is amazing. So, I want to go to this medical school.
Hospitals and medical centers are always looking for passionate young people hoping to make a change in their community. The UMMC Surgical Tech Training Program, and other similar opportunities, create pathways for students to join the health care workforce and make an impact right out of high school.