Biomedical Equipment Technology program embraces new workspaces at TSTC

(WACO, Texas) - Texas State Technical College's Biomedical Equipment Technology program is undergoing a renaissance at the Waco campus.

Boxes are slowly being unpacked and labs organized in new, larger renovated learning spaces in the Electrical Electronics Center. A new addition to the program is the "hospital room" with electrocardiograms, incubators, infant warmers, operating room tables, ventilators and other equipment.

Terry Whitworth, an instructor in TSTC's Biomedical Equipment Technology program, was a student in the program in 2001 and began teaching six years ago at the college. He remembers scheduling being difficult at times with the limited space that the program had.

"Now we are able to arrange a room more suitable to the class versus making do," Whitworth said. "Since COVID-19, we have been fortunate to obtain a lot of newer equipment and now have suitable floor space to accommodate it."

The Biomedical Equipment Technology program at the Waco campus awarded more than 240 certificates of completion and associate degrees from fall 2020 to summer 2024, according to TSTC's Business Analytics and Reporting department. About 130 certificates and associate degrees were awarded to students ages 22-34, the largest of the age groups.

John Sughrue, of Lockhart, is in his fourth semester in the Biomedical Equipment Technology program. He said he likes the program's new surroundings.

"It's good because we were limited to the equipment that we were able to work on due to the limited amount of space we had, so now we can pull in bigger pieces of equipment and actually take it apart and look inside all of it," Sughrue said. "You can even work in a group or by yourself."

Sughrue became interested in repairing medical equipment during a campus tour while he was in high school.

"I think what I enjoy most is having hands-on work, but I like the one-on-one experiences with the instructors," he said. "It's not just about learning to fix equipment; it is learning how to interact with the people that you are going to be working with (in the future). You can actually sit down and ask questions."

The Electrical Electronics Center was built in 1979. The improvements to the building, along with those of the Technical Studies Center, are part of a $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, a bureau within the Department of Commerce, to modernize the structures. The project is scheduled to be completed in spring 2025.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be a nationwide need for more than 79,000 medical equipment repairers by 2033.

Registration continues for the spring semester at TSTC. For more information, go to tstc.edu.

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