Surgical Technology Program at USU Eastern Receives Accreditation

Utah State University’s College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences is pleased to announce that USU Eastern’s surgical technology program recently received accreditation from the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education in Schools. The surgical technology program, in which students receive training that prepares them to assist surgeons and other medical professionals in operations, is an associate of science degree program that can be completed in two years.

“We hope to see an influx of students,” said Michele Lyman, director of USU Eastern’s health professions programs. “Especially now that we can get back out there and recruit for our programs. We find that word of mouth has been a very powerful asset to recruiting for our programs during the pandemic.”

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the course of accreditation for the surgical technology program, as the Blanding campus was the original site that was seeking accreditation. When the pandemic hit, classes shifted to the Price campus, and the accreditation application was re-written to make Price the accreditation site and Blanding the secondary classroom. Blanding has since re-applied for accreditation.

Lyman said the recent accreditation will allow graduates to sit for state and national certification exams, ensure the program maintains standards set by experts in the surgical technology field, promote transparency in how the program is run, help the program’s faculty identify strengths and weaknesses and improve overall management processes.

According to the accrediting organization, USU Eastern’s “near-perfect” application ensures that the program will be accredited for the next four years, a significant achievement given the fact that with an initial accreditation, a program typically is not awarded more than two years.

“Recently, it became a requirement that any schools offering a surgical technology program must confer an associate of science degree for their students to be able to sit for a national certification (and be accredited)” said Lyman. “This has affected many vocational and technical schools and they will have to find other schools to partner with or figure out a way to offer this degree.”

USU Eastern’s programs in Price and Blanding are helping to prepare students to fill the demand for healthcare practitioners in the region and build rewarding careers. Programs that are training surgical, pharmacy and medical laboratory technicians are part of the Department of Aviation and Technical Education and focused on teaching skills that are needed in communities throughout the state and region.

“It’s very important that we are able to train people who want to go back into their communities and serve people,” Lyman said. “These health professions programs are important so our students can come to school and go back into their communities where they really want to be living with their families and taking care of people there.”

Read more about USU Eastern’s health professions programs in Cultivate, and view video about some of the program’s faculty and students YouTube.