By Steven J. Yelton, P.E., AAMIF
I’ve recently been approached to help with the possible development of a college HTM program. I feel this is encouraging to our field in that it shows that college administrations are seeing this as a viable program for their college. This is also encouraging since we are constantly trying to figure out ways to get more students and graduates into the HTM field. I feel that it is timely to revisit this topic as we move into the time of year when we are looking at new programs to propose at the college level.
In our area, when a new program is considering opening, it is normally a minimum of around 50 miles away from existing programs. This way there is little competition between institutions. We have generally found that community college students tend to live at home and commute to school. This means that it is very important for them to have an available program relatively close to home. We are always open to helping our colleagues at other colleges.
Another aspect of having multiple colleges with HTM programs is the availability of students for co-operative education (co-op) placements or internships. As I mentioned before, the proximity of the placement to a student’s home is very important to them.
Cincinnati State Technical and Community College has always been a co-op school where our students are required to complete cooperative education assignments in order to graduate. As such, we have co-op coordinators for each program. They recruit and place students, search for positions, and teach classes on interviewing skills, resume writing, job responsibilities and communications. In conjunction with our other faculty, industry advisors and employers, our co-op coordinators provide advice to students to make sure early on that they are in the field that best fits them. One very frustrating situation for our co-op coordinators is when they don’t have students available to place in co-op or full-time positions. Their main goal is to accommodate students and employers. We generally have more openings than available students, so additional programs in our area could help that situation.
When I help colleges start new HTM programs I always refer them to AAMI and the resources that they have available. I see the resources at AAMI as closing the loop for the educational process.
Now that the ANSI/AAMI EQ-110:2024 standard for healthcare technology management (HTM) educational programs is published, I recommend it as a good starting point for programs. This standard will give a baseline for what a viable HTM program should be. As I always mention, it is also a great resource for HTM technicians and employers to compare to needed skills for entering the field.
This standard in conjunction with the college’s accreditation agency requirements should guide them in the development of their program. At Cincinnati State, we are accredited by the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges. We achieved this accreditation in 1976 and it remains the benchmark for all of our programs. We then use the AAMI standard and guidelines from The Technology Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (TAC-ABET) to further “tune” our engineering technology programs.
In addition to these resources, we rely heavily on industry advisory committees and employers for guidance on the program curriculum.
In this article, I’m suggesting ways to foster cooperation between learning institutions which would help fill HTM roles without infringing on each other’s immediate areas. I always like to give a shout out to the apprenticeship program within AAMI since I feel that this is very innovative and provides opportunities to a potentially underserved group. I feel that this is a great feeder program to our programs. The hope is that these students would choose to complete their associate or possibly a bachelor’s degree. This program has been very successful and has helped fill the need for HTM technicians. The following statement is from the AAMI Array website: “Because of the shortage of qualified healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals in the hiring pool, some hospitals and other employers are training their own biomedical equipment technicians (BMETs) from the ground up with no formalized way to ensure these BMETs are trained consistently or to a minimum standard. This apprenticeship program will bring structure to that process and contribute to a solution for bridging the current skill gap in the field for entry-level employees. The intent is that the availability of a formalized BMET apprenticeship that offers formalized training in a real work environment will attract new professionals to the field.”
The final piece to closing the loop in HTM training is certification. I feel strongly about graduates attaining a certification from the AAMI Certification Institute (ACI). I feel that this is a great way to demonstrate a graduate’s education and experience and could be used as a factor for promotion within the field.
