by Dr. Bill Lace
Part I: Answering the Call
Tarrant County College students ideally base their career decisions on an informed, rational process. Job market. Work environment. Salaries and benefits. Advancement potential.
Those entering healthcare fields may face another important factor. They are much more likely to rely on the heart than the head.
Or perhaps it just seems that way talking with first-year students.
While in high school, Joy Nettleton (Vocational Nursing) spent six months of days and nights in hospitals at the bedside of her leukemia-stricken boyfriend.
“I have seen the love and joy and support nurses provide,” she said, “and I can’t imagine wanting to do anything more than I want to do this.”
Registered Nurse hopeful Scarlett Abata was 10 when her grandfather was diagnosed with stage four renal cancer. “It fulfilled my heart to be with him and read to him after school when he was in his last days. That has been my driving force and passion since then.”
Passion is precisely what TCC Health Sciences faculty seek in a new student. Jon Darnell, director of radiology at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Alliance and chair of the system’s Radiology Advisory Council, has served on advisory committees and helped faculty members interview prospective students.
“Typically, we’re looking for people who are dedicated to the craft of healthcare,” he said. “I think that’s where it has to start. Because if you don’t have the passion, then healthcare is not your field. This is not a job for the weak of heart.”
Competition for admittance is fierce. Some programs have prerequisites for entry, including in-depth health-related courses, and even a passing grade may not guarantee a classroom seat.
Radiologic Technology (X-ray) could have 130 applicants, noted interim TCC Dean Stephanie Holden, but only 50 may be invited to information sessions. “We tell them that this is what we expect you to do over the next two years,” she said. About 30 eventually are selected.
It took Sarah Winters two tries to earn a slot in Nuclear Medicine. “When I learned that I got in,” she said, “I just dropped to the floor and cried for an egregious amount of time. I was so happy.”
Whether at an info session or the first day of class, faculty make every effort to explain both what a program is and is not.
Because students sometimes pick a program for the wrong reason.
Prospective nurses may not have a clear understanding of what the nursing profession entails, said Debbie Phillips, associate chief nursing officer for Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth and a TCC graduate.
“They may have based their opinion from a hospital stay, family members who were nurses or what they see on TV,” Phillips said. “We have expanded our partnership with local schools of nursing so that the prospective nurses can get the real experience.”
“It (nursing) is not an easy gig,” said Lana Galer, chief nursing officer for Fort Worth’s Texas Rehabilitation Hospital and a TCC graduate. “It’s not just following an order and fluffing pillows. It’s sometimes saving people’s lives. Tough love sometimes is really needed.”
And TCC’s catalog and internet descriptions, while describing medical procedures, do not emphasize that those procedures sometimes fail to yield a welcome outcome.
“You have to really, really want to work in an operating room,” said TCC Surgical Technology Director Jeffrey Leonard. “Surgeons and anesthesiologists may yell at you, and patients are going to die right in front of you.”
Many students, while new to a specific program, are not newcomers to TCC or to TCC Health Sciences. Certification in Radiologic Technology, for instance, is required before enrollment in
other imaging programs such as Sonography or Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technology (MRI).
A program like Medical Assistant and Central Sterile Processing often can be a foot in the door to Surgical Technology. “It’s a really good program for people who want to be in healthcare and are trying to figure out what they want to do,” said TCC Central Sterile Processing Coordinator Theresa Steele.
Aside from the opportunity to greatly improve people’s lives, TCC Health Sciences can bring a handsome return on investment, offering graduates good salaries in exchange for a tuition that is modest for higher education. A sample of tuition costs based on in-county, in-state rates, excluding books and materials:
Program Median Salary* Tuition and Fees
Registered Nurse $115,000 $4,440
Emergency Medicine $115,000 $4,440
Dental Hygiene $92,000 $5,032
Nuclear Medicine $90,000 $4,440
Radiologic Technologist $80,000 $4,736
Surgical Technology $74,000 $4,440
*source: Lightcast
Hundreds of students enter TCC Health Sciences every year. Some are savvy to what awaits; hopefully all have at minimum a rough idea.
Some are eager, others are apprehensive. Still others are a bit of both. All have surely one thing in common.
The desire to better the medical profession and themselves.
