MohaveWire

It wasn’t exactly “the battle of the biceps,” but when Physical Therapist Assistant Program Director Rhonda Schnabl and Surgical Technology Program Director Dr. Robert Goodrich faced off in a friendly arm-wrestling match recently, the cheers of their students rocked the halls of the Hero Student Services building on the Lake Havasu City campus of Mohave Community College. 

The two directors staged the match to whip up program pride and poke fun at the spirit of competition that has developed between the programs, most recently over the issue of enrollment. Though the programs are based in Havasu, students attend from all areas.

“We’ve been kind of neck and neck in filling our classes,” Schnabl said smiling. “This shows we’re really passionate about our individual programs; but we also approach our programs as a team. We help each other. It’s almost like having two directors for each program.”

Goodrich said he and Schnabl found they “got on” after they realized they both attended the same college and the same medical school in Georgia. Goodrich calls their relationship now one of “friendly one-upmanship.”

The second cohort of the MCC’s PTA program, which started this fall, consists of 21 students, one over the target class size.  This year’s starting Surgical Technology class contains 20 students, right at capacity. What’s most impressive is that both programs reached capacity while Schnabl and Goodrich stuck to their usual high standards for who they accept.

“I went to 21 because the people who came to me before classes began were ready to start,” Schnabl said. That included having already completed required general education classes while maintaining exceptional grades.

Schnabl said the only official prerequisite for MCC’s PTA program is being prepared to take college-level English and math; but students who have completed core classes are in a position to “focus better on the PTA classes.”

The PTA program prepares graduates to work under the supervision of a licensed physical therapist to provide care to patients suffering from injury or disease that results in pain, wounds, a loss of motion within a joint, abnormal walking patterns and general debility.

MCC’s program, which leads to an associate of applied science degree, takes five semesters, or about two years to complete. Applications are accepted each spring for the following fall semester. The U.S. Department of Labor has estimated the demand for physical therapist assistants will increase 29 percent between 2006 and 2016.

MCC’s Surgical Technology program, which prepares graduates to assist doctors and nurses in a surgical setting, is in its second year since expanding from a four-semester certificate program to a five-semester associate’s degree. 

Goodrich said the redesigned program features twice the lab time and about 50 percent more clinical experience than the previous program.  Students can perform their clinical work in virtually any hospital they choose while completing their second-year coursework online.

“I try to place students in hospitals where they’re the only surg-tech student so that by the end of the semester, it’s like they had a 30-week interview,” he said.

 More lab and clinical experience means MCC graduates have a better chance of passing their Board examinations and getting a job, often at their chosen clinical site, Goodrich said. The success of the expanded program is reflected in the fact that 80 percent of last year’s graduates passed their Board examinations on the first try. The average is about 65 percent, Goodrich said.

For more information about the Physical Therapist Assistant program or the Surgical Technology program at Mohave Community College, or to download a program application, go to www.mohave.edu/programs.  Reach PTA Program Director Rhonda Schnabl at (928) 505-3347 and Surgical Technology Program Director Dr. Goodrich at (928) 505-3374. They can also be reached toll free at (866) 664-2832.

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CUTLINE:  Surgical Technology Program Director Dr. Robert Goodrich is cheered on by his students, in red scrubs, while Physical Therapist Assistant Program Director Rhonda Schnabl gets support from second-year PTA students in dark blue, and first-year students in white, during a friendly arm-wrestling match staged recently in the PTA lab on the Lake Havasu City campus of Mohave Community College. Though the programs are based in Havasu, students attend from all areas.