Diagnostic Medical Sonography: Picture of Health
South Texas College offers an Associate of Applied Science in Diagnostic Medical Sonography as well as an Advanced Technical Certificate program for prospective students. The programs are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges Accreditation Guidelines.
Medical sonography teaches students how to take, view, and analyze sonograms over a wide range of body areas, including the abdomen and reproductive system. Cardiac and vascular sonography focuses on ultrasounds of the human heart and vascular structures.
Graduates from the program at STC continually surpass the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) certification national examination score averages. Graduating cohorts from the Diagnostic Medical Sonography Program also obtained a 100 percent pass rate in 2016.
Students must apply and get accepted into the sonography programs. Selection of students is made one time a year. The deadline for applying to the Diagnostic Medical Sonography Program is the first Friday in September of the current year.
Emergency Medical Technology: Answering the Call
When emergencies happen, EMTs and Paramedics make the difference.
When we need help the most, emergency medical technicians and paramedics are the ones we call. South Texas College has offered emergency medical technician (EMT) training since the college’s inception in 1993. The EMT program was created through Texas Senate Bill 251 that granted STC the ability to teach EMS in Hidalgo and Starr Counties. The EMT program at STC became one of the first two AAS degrees approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to be offered by the College.
Since then, the EMT program at STC has grown from a single certificate program to one that now offers technical certificates in Basic EMT, Advanced EMT, EMT Paramedic as well as an Associate of Applied Science in Emergency Medical Technology.
The programs are designed with a mix of classroom instruction and clinical experiences. Once students earn a certificate or A.A.S. they may take the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians Certification Exam (NREMT).
The EMT program at South Texas College features a 97.2 percent job placement rate for students completing their coursework and subsequent exams.
Occupational Therapy Assistant: Rewarding Careers in Helping People
In its simplest terms, occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants help people participate in the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of everyday activities (occupations).
The mandate of the profession is to assist patients to develop life skills by providing services with the ultimate goal of increasing their independence in daily functioning. The recipients of therapy are those who have encountered problems that interfere with their ability to function in any stage of their development. The scope of services includes physical, cognitive, and psychological and psychosocial disorders.
Common occupational therapy interventions include helping children with disabilities to participate fully in school and social situations, helping people recovering from injury to regain skills, and providing supports for older adults experiencing physical and cognitive changes. (AOTA 2012).
Where 57 students might begin the program at South Texas College, 48 will have completed their coursework and moved on to OTA careers, an 84 percent graduation rate. The OTA program also boasts a 100 percent passing rate from first-time test takers.
Respiratory Therapy: Helping Patients Breathe Easy
Respiratory Therapists Play an Important Role in Health Care.
Although the general public is more familiar with doctors and nurses, anyone who’s had a serious hospital visit or surgery has probably had contact with a respiratory therapist at some point.
These respiratory experts are important members of the health care team and are involved in saving and improving the quality of people’s lives.
Graduates of the Respiratory Therapy Program at South Texas College earn an Associate of Applied Science degree. The program is five semesters in length and combines classroom, laboratory, and clinical education experiences. The program will prepare the student’s knowledge, skills, and ethical attitude that will culminate in successful employment of the graduate as a licensed respiratory therapist.
Respiratory therapists provide treatment for all age groups, from infants to the elderly, and are involved in everything from rehabilitation to smoking-cessation, disease prevention, case management and the diagnosis of breathing disorders.
Pharmacy Technology: A prescription for success
STC’s Pharmacy Technology program has helped create standards that are miles beyond minimum workplace requirements. The goal, according to faculty is to make students hyper-ready for work in a variety of settings including institutional, retail outlets, and mail-order pharmacies.
The structure of the program at STC has been designed to include both the entry-level and the advanced curriculum levels advocated by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE). Students are introduced to everything from simple patient communication and customer service before moving on to complex tasks like sterile compounding and medical therapy management.
From Pyxis automated medication dispensing systems, to communication with pharmacy programs at STC’s simulation hospitals in Weslaco and Starr County, the only things not real are the medications themselves. In response, one registered lab assistant went so far as to simulate the colors of actual medications so students get as close as possible to working with the real thing.
NURSING PROGRAMS
Patient Care Technician
Vocational Nursing
Associate Degree Nursing
Bachelor of Science In Nursing
ALLIED HEALTH PROGRAMS
Diagnostic Medical Sonogoraphy
Emergency Medical Technology
Health and Medical Administrative Services
Medical Assistant Technology
Occupational Therapy Assistant
Pharmacy Technology
Physical Therapist Assistant
Radiologic Technology
Respiratory Therapy
