Recommendation for Surgical Tech college/voc school in Tampa Bay area?

Hello. I am planning on attending a surgical tech school in the Tampa/St. Petersburgh area. Already have several ones on my list that I am considering (narrowed down to location, accreditations, $, etc.). If anybody has a good recommendation, or bad experience with a certain school, please let me know. I know I cannot judge a school just by how much a course costs (higher cost does not always equal better education). The prices vary all the way from 5K to 23K in this area. What I am interested in is good education from a good accredited CAAHEP institution. So far I have Concorde Career College, CFI (Central Florida Institute), Erwin Technical Center, PTEC (Pinellas Technical Ed. Centers), and Lincoln Technical Institute on my list.

Any assistance or help is appreciated. Thanks in advance. Michelle

mlundy in Odessa, Florida said: Hello. I am planning on attending a surgical tech school in the Tampa/St. Petersburgh area. Already have several ones on my list that I am considering (narrowed down to location, accreditations, $, etc.). If anybody has a good recommendation, or bad experience with a certain school, please let me know. I know I cannot judge a school just by how much a course costs (higher cost does not always equal better education). The prices vary all the way from 5K to 23K in this area. What I am interested in is good education from a good accredited CAAHEP institution. So far I have Concorde Career College, CFI (Central Florida Institute), Erwin Technical Center, PTEC (Pinellas Technical Ed. Centers), and Lincoln Technical Institute on my list.

Any assistance or help is appreciated. Thanks in advance. Michelle

Definetly choose Ptec! Im enrolled now in the surgical tech program and it is awesome I love it!! I have been in class since January 24th and I believe the next class starts in June. Good luck!!! Plus its a good program and it costs 5200 compared to the other ones who are way to expensive!!

Happylilsurgtechstudent in Largo, Florida said: Definetly choose Ptec! Im enrolled now in the surgical tech program and it is awesome I love it!! I have been in class since January 24th and I believe the next class starts in June. Good luck!!! Plus its a good program and it costs 5200 compared to the other ones who are way to expensive!!

Thanks so much for your reply and input! I understand that one has to pass the TABE as well as the HOBET test to get into the program. How hard are these two tests? I'm kind of nervous, because it's been a while since I graduated high school. So I've been studying to freshen up on my math mostly. I want to stop by PTEC first and see the facilities as well. Thanks again for your help.

Michelle

Michelle in Odessa, Florida said: Thanks so much for your reply and input! I understand that one has to pass the TABE as well as the HOBET test to get into the program. How hard are these two tests? I'm kind of nervous, because it's been a while since I graduated high school. So I've been studying to freshen up on my math mostly. I want to stop by PTEC first and see the facilities as well. Thanks again for your help.

Michelle

The two tests really are not that hard, I got a study guide from amazon and studied that way. I was also wrong the next class at Ptec starts in August.

The Tampa area has several surgical technology programs in the area. There are 3 Associate degree programs, the rest are diploma programs. All but one school is programmatically accreditted. However the school is in the process of getting it's programmatic accreditation. Programmatic accrediation is what allows you to sit for the CST exam given by the NBSTSA.
I believe the school pricing varies from $3500 to somewhere in the 40000+ range. The least expensive schools to attend would be the county schools that recieve tax money and as a result or able to offer a lower price to the students they accept. Understandably with out the tax money there'd be no way anyone could offer a surgical technology program at the prices they offer. The three county schools in the area are Erwin-Tampa, PTec-Pinellas, Traviss- Lakeland. There are also two county schools a little further out if you're willing to travel. Manatee Technical- Bradenton, and Sarasota Technical Institute-Sarasota. I believe all of the county schools have waiting list, but do your homework to verify that. The county schools all have good reputations, and so do some of the for-profit schools. There isn't much of a pay difference if any at all in most of the hospitals in the area for a graduate with an associates versus a diploma. I'd say the most important thing for me assuming they all are accredited would be Price, Placement number (ask how many are getting jobs as they can waive the students for various reasons that were not employed), Location of the school, and the Location/amount of clinicals sites. Some other things to consider are retention rates (how many students finish the program), and for the for-profits, what's included in the price of the school (books, uniforms, shots, physical, cost of the certification exam, AST membership, lab fee's, online class fee's, field trips, graduation fee's, etc). The more money you owe after graduation the less money you'll be keep in your bank account each month.

Are the number of positions for Surgical Technicians increasing, as much as all the other medical type jobs are ? Second question, Is there a High Demand for Surgical Technicians as much as other medical professionals ? in the local Tampa Bay community ?

I'm interested in becoming a cst. I've narrowed it down to 2 schools, one a local county school offers a diploma in st and is about $6,000 and the other a 30 minute drive away offers an assoc. degree and is about $20,000. Which do you think would be better.? I've heard so many opinions a few more won't hurt. I need to make a desicion soon, the $20,000 program would begin the beginning of august and the cheaper program deosn't start until october. Please HELP!

If you can get into the county school and I'm guessing Manatee county in this case I'd go there. It's the newest program beautiful campus, great lab with tons of supplies. I say this only because there isn't much of a difference if any in pay whether you have a diploma or an associates. You'll also finish school sooner and in theory start working as a surgical technologist sooner rather than later. However I'd have to say 20,000 for an associate program isn't a bad price at the for-profit schools, probably the least expensive of the the three surg tech associates programs in that area. I'm thinking the AS surg tech school might have been Keiser(They must have dropped the price for their program, kudo's to them). Try to keep what you come out of school owing as small as possible. Many students go back to school to make more money and end up making less money than they did previously, once they factor in the monthly cost of repaying their student loans and that could potentially take 10 years to pay off.

TR in Plant City, Florida said: If you can get into the county school and I'm guessing Manatee county in this case I'd go there. It's the newest program beautiful campus, great lab with tons of supplies. I say this only because there isn't much of a difference if any in pay whether you have a diploma or an associates. You'll also finish school sooner and in theory start working as a surgical technologist sooner rather than later. However I'd have to say 20,000 for an associate program isn't a bad price at the for-profit schools, probably the least expensive of the the three surg tech associates programs in that area. I'm thinking the AS surg tech school might have been Keiser(They must have dropped the price for their program, kudo's to them). Try to keep what you come out of school owing as small as possible. Many students go back to school to make more money and end up making less money than they did previously, once they factor in the monthly cost of repaying their student loans and that could potentially take 10 years to pay off.

Thank You TR. :)

I would choose MTI....I go to Ptec in Pinellas which is awesome too, but def not as new. DO NOT waste your money on the expensive schools. I have heard out in my clinicals so far that they do not know half of what we do being part of the public schools. Private school grads have a hard time finding employment. Dont get mad at that statement it's just what I have heard from surgeons, instructors and OR nurses.

camary1968 in Bradenton, Florida said: I'm interested in becoming a cst. I've narrowed it down to 2 schools, one a local county school offers a diploma in st and is about $6,000 and the other a 30 minute drive away offers an assoc. degree and is about $20,000. Which do you think would be better.? I've heard so many opinions a few more won't hurt. I need to make a desicion soon, the $20,000 program would begin the beginning of august and the cheaper program deosn't start until october. Please HELP!

I think that an Associates degree would always be better in case you want to further your education. Plus, the job ads I usually see for a Surg Tech have an Associates degree preferred.

Well, I got into to Surgi Tech program at MTI, now my biggest fear is after I finish the program, will I be able to find a job. All of my co-workers are not very encouraging in my decision to attend the program, but it's something that I've always wanted to do. Should I listen to them and go into a more profitable career?

You'll find a job but you have to be open to the possibility of moving out of state...

Well I am in my 1st rotation of clinicals in the St. Pete area and so far I hate it!! The people are horrible and mean, I am in my 4th week and figured it would get better, but its not. They are rude and not helpful. The surgieons seem nice but the ciculators and the other surgical techs are down right nasty! Im hoping my next hospital I will have a different experience. I hope this is not an indication of what I have to look forward to.

I love scrubbing, but I am to nice and my personality will not allow me to stoop to thier level of immaturity and meaness! :(

Hi. I am thinking about enrolling the in surgical tech program at ptec. Was the HOBET test hard? What does a score of 750 mean?

Does anyone have an idea of the actual class times for a surgical tech program? I know usually with a diploma program it's a 5 day weekly commitment.

Does anyone know what the class schedules might be? Is it M-F?

It depends on what school you want to go to. At PTEC its monday through thrusday 7:30-2:45.

I'm hoping to get into MTI next semester. My big fear is that I have been out of school for so long. Can someone tell me what a typical class is like? Are there presentations to make and papers to write?

Hi Chris,
I'm currently a student at MTI's Surg Tech program. The program so far has been very challenging. Our program got off to a rough start because the school had hired a new instructor to teach us the first part of the course, but by the time the program had started, she hadn't even finished her paperwork, so she couldn't begin right away. Core, which is the first portion, was very easy, even though we were taught by instructors who weren't planning on having the surg tech students, so we were doubled up with both nursing and ma students, which made the class sizes 3 times as big.
Once we actually started in the surg tech coursework, we all started to feel a little better about our program at least we thought. A typical day is coursework during the morning, we're in school M-F 8a-3p and maybe if we're lucky we can get a chance to practice our skills in our OR lab, which isn't that often. Be prepared to be disappointed with the program. If I would've known then what I know now, I probably would've chosen a different school. A majority of the students in my class are feeling the same way about our overall experience. We're suppose to start clinicals in June,we'll see how that goes. We started with 18
students, 1 dropped out because of the way the program is run, 1 dropped out for financial reason and three shorted their program and opted to just become sterile processing techs.
There is only 1 FT instructor for 13 students and 1 instructor that's PT whenever she's not working, so that makes it very difficult at times as well.
Chris if I were you, I would ask to sit it on a typical day and see for yourself. I wish I had done that, maybe things would've been different for me. But most of my classmates will tell you the best part of course, is when we're in the lab.
I hope this helps, feel free to ask or email me if you would like to know anything else.