By Steve Yelton
I would like to outline a program that we have been using for Cincinnati State Technical and Community College’s HTM Program for many years. I feel this can be a rewarding aspect of any HTM educational program.
Since the early 1980s the HTM program at Cincinnati State has taught the HTM courses (formerly known as the biomed courses) using a collaborative method. This method included a faculty member at the college working with an adjunct instructor from a local hospital.
Currently, we employ a hybrid approach to delivering our HTM courses. Some of the lecture and laboratory material is presented online via the Blackboard platform and some is presented face-to-face. The collaboration occurs mostly with the face-to-face portion of the class. Our face-to-face time is comprised of approximately 50% of the time on campus and 50% of the time at the hospital. Currently, the hospital partner teaches the face-to-face piece on campus and at the hospital with help from a college faculty member.
The college has biomed as well as electronics laboratories on campus. We also have a nursing program, so we have access to numerous medical devices that the students may troubleshoot and repair. Our biomedical courses focus on repair of medical devices with some design work. Where the collaboration is extremely helpful is in the areas of the hospital that we are not able to replicate in the college laboratories. There are many medical systems that we do not have on campus.
I admit there are some challenges as we continue to navigate a future that includes COVID-19 and its variants. However, these challenges have been overcome as we proceed with this important part (in my opinion) of our HTM program. Cincinnati State is continuing to place cooperative education students and is working to enhance our placements in local hospitals. This is an integral part of this collaboration.
As I meet with my educational colleagues at AAMI and others, most of them have similar collaborations with their local hospitals. The college sees many benefits to this. Our HTM program was built on collaborations like this. Our hospital and corporate partners have ownership in the HTM program. By this, I mean they have a strong interest in supporting and growing a vibrant HTM educational program. Our partners have always supported us with equipment donations, guest speakers, advisory board members and more. This support takes the collaboration to another level.
An added bonus is, as we go through our accreditation processes, this collaboration proves to be a very positive aspect of our program. We are able to provide actual hands-on education on medical systems that we do not have on campus. Most notably are imaging modalities, intensive care areas and operating suites. We are able to instruct students on X-ray technology of all kinds. They learn about X-ray rooms as well as mobile X-ray. They are able to study CT systems as well as MRI. Students have classes and laboratories in all of these areas as well as cath lab. To have actual laboratory experiences in these areas is extremely beneficial to us and would not be possible without the collaboration.
Our students are required to work in a related cooperative education (co-op) placement. They normally complete their co-op assignments at one hospital. Most students complete more than one semester as a co-op employee, but they generally return to the same hospital so that they are able to avoid the “new employee” learning curve and move into more sophisticated experiences. Since this is normally the case, having the opportunity to attend classes in a different hospital is a nice perk for the students.
In our particular collaboration, numerous members of the hospital HTM department take part in the educational process. The director is the actual adjunct instructor from the hospital, but numerous technicians take part in classes and laboratories that are part of their specialty. Since our students participate in a cooperative education program, this gives the participating hospital a chance to interact with prospective employees. The students also get an opportunity to see the hospital operation. This is a win-win for everyone.
Through this collaboration as well as our cooperative education program, students graduate from the program with significant practical experience in the HTM field. I feel that this collaboration teaches beyond the classroom. The student learns the importance of timeliness, work ethic, teamwork, as well as equipment repair and the hospital environment. Many times, the collaborating hospital hires a student from the class upon graduation. This is an advantage to both. This collaboration has been extremely rewarding for me and hopefully for our collaborators also.
