Academics

• Overview
• Program Requirements
• Program Effectiveness
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• Physical Demands
• Frequently Asked Questions
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Program Effectiveness

Miami Dade College Mission Statement

The Mission of Miami Dade College is to change lives through the opportunity of education. As democracy’s college, MDC provides high-quality teaching and learning experiences that are accessible and affordable to meet the needs of our diverse students and prepare them to be responsible global citizens and successful lifelong learners. The College embraces its responsibility to serve as an economic, cultural and civic beacon in our community.

School of Health Sciences Mission Statement

The mission of the School of Health Sciences is to provide excellent, affordable, accessible health care education, and to promote quality health care services throughout the community. 

Surgical Technology Mission Statement

The Mission of the Surgical Technology Program at Miami Dade College is to provide a comprehensive, sequential curriculum in Surgical Technology. The curriculum was built on the foundation of the general education already acquired, and to prepare entry-level Surgical Technologists who are competent in the cognitive (knowledge), psychomotor (skills), and affective (behavior) learning domains to enter the profession.

Program Goals

The goals of the Surgical Technology Program are:

1. To prepare entry-level Surgical Technologists who are competent in the cognitive (knowledge), psychomotor (skills), and affective (behavior) learning domains to enter the profession.
2. To develop a graduate who will:
   1. Function safely, effectively and efficiently and exhibit ethical behavior in a surgical technologist role.
   2. Apply basic scientific principles related to anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology for safe transfer, positioning, prepping and draping of surgical patients.
   3. Describe actions and uses of anesthetic and pharmacological agents in the care of surgical patients.
   4. Apply knowledge of interpersonal skills and communications relative to procedures and protocols from a surgical technologist’s perspective when working with patients, patients’ significant others, colleagues and other members of a healthcare team, as well as other members of the community.
   5. Apply principles of asepsis in an operating room setting
   6. Demonstrate appropriate use and care of basic and specialty instruments, equipment and supplies.

The surgical technology program is required to verify through the surgical rotation documentation the students' progression in the scrub role in surgical procedures of increased complexity as he/she moves towards entry-level graduate competency.

While it is understood that no program is able to control surgical case volume or the availability of various surgical specialties, it is the responsibility of the program to provide students with a diversified surgical rotation experience.

No information in this document prevents programs from exceeding the minimum established by the Surgical Rotation Case Requirements.

Students must complete a minimum of 120 cases as delineated below.

General surgery

A student must complete a minimum of 30 cases in General Surgery.

• 20 of these cases must be performed in the First Scrub (FS) role.
• The remaining 10 cases may be performed in either the First Scrub or Second Scrub (SS) role.

Special Surgery

A student must complete a minimum of 90 cases in various surgical specialties, excluding General Surgery.

• A minimum of 60 cases must be performed in the FS role and distributed amongst a minimum of four surgical specialties
• A minimum of ten cases in four different specialties must be completed in the FS role (40 cases total).
• The additional 20 cases in the FS role may be distributed amongst any one surgical specialty or multiple surgical specialties
• The remaining 30 cases may be performed in any surgical specialty in either the FS or SS role.

• Surgical specialties (excluding General Surgery)
  1. Cardiothoracic
  2. Genitourinary
  3. Neurologic
  4. Obstetric and gynecologic
  5. Orthopedic
  6. Otorhinolaryngologic
  7. Ophthalmologic
  8. Oral Maxillofacial
  9. Peripheral vascular
  10. Plastics and reconstructive
  11. Procurement and transplant

Diagnostic vs. operative endoscopy cases

1. An endoscopy classified as a semi-critical procedure is considered a diagnostic case.
2. An endoscopy classified as a critical procedure is
considered an operative case.
3. Diagnostic and operative cases will be counted according to
specialty.

4. Diagnostic cases are counted in the SS role up to a total of ten of the required 120 cases.
5. Vaginal delivery cases are counted in the SS role of the OB/GYN specialty, up to a total of five of the required 120.
6. The Observation role is defined as a student who has not met the FS or SS criteria. The student is observing a case in either the sterile or nonsterile role. Observation cases cannot be applied to the required 120 case count but must be documented.

• Vaginal delivery cases are counted in the SS role of the OB/GYN specialty, up to a total of five of the required 120.
• The observation role is defined as a student who has not met the FS or SS criteria. The student is observing a case in either the sterile or nonsterile role. Observation cases cannot be applied to the required 120 case count but must be documented.

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