
Reading Hospital is offering 10 full tuition scholarships for surgical technology students this year.
The selected students, who will study at Reading Hospital School of Health Sciences, will commit to working for three years at Reading Hospital in exchange for the approximately $17,800 tuition coverage. Program fees of $2,500 will be paid by the students.
The hospital said the current class of four students were also provided a prorated two-year scholarship.
Surgical technologists are allied healthcare professionals who provide direct patient care during surgery, the hospital said. They work side by side with surgeons, registered nurses, anesthesia care providers, and other multi-disciplinary healthcare team members to provide quality patient care in the operating room.
“Students in our Surgical Technology program participate in traditional classroom instruction, develop their clinical skills in our state-of-the-art simulation skills lab, and complete more than 900 hours of clinical practice during their enrollment at Reading Hospital,” said Debbie Rahn, director, Reading Hospital School of Health Sciences. “Our graduates are prepared for their careers and for more than 10 years our students have had a 100% pass rate of the Surgical Technologist National Certification Exam.”
The Surgical Technology program is a cooperative degree program between Reading Hospital School of Health Sciences and Alvernia University. Upon completion of the 20-month program, students graduate with an Associate Degree in Science and a Diploma in Surgical Technology.
Students also earn Da Vinci Robotic certification during the program.
Graduates of the Surgical Technology program are eligible to sit for the Surgical Technologist National Certification Exam from the National Board of Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting (NBSTSA) upon completion of the program.
The Surgical Technology Program at Reading Hospital School of Health Sciences was established in 1969 and has been accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) since 1997.
Dr. Charles Barbera, Reading Hospital president and CEO said, “For more than 130 years the Reading Hospital School of Health Sciences has been providing superior educational programs. Reading Hospital is proud to provide this unique scholarship opportunity to our incoming students who, in turn, will become our colleagues at the hospital to help fulfill our mission of providing high-quality healthcare to our communities.”