School of Nursing & Health Sciences News Articles

A $10,000 gift from the Dr. and Mrs. Arthur William Phillips Charitable Trust has helped Pennsylvania College of Technology purchase PeriopSim, a virtual reality simulation learning system, for its surgical technology program. Using virtual reality headsets and hand controls, students are immersed in a virtual operating room environment, allowing them to practice surgical procedures repeatedly in a safe, controlled environment.

Fifteen Pennsylvania College of Technology paramedic students are part of the health care team at the 2024 Little League Baseball World Series. The students work under the guidance of certified paramedics from Susquehanna Regional Emergency Medical Services, who are on hand in the stadiums to provide for the emergency health needs of spectators at the nationally televised youth sports event, which began Aug. 14 and concludes Aug. 25.

Pennsylvania College of Technology has presented student achievement awards to its Summer 2024 graduates. A commencement ceremony was held Saturday, Aug. 3, at the Community Arts Center, Williamsport. Penn College is a special mission affiliate of Penn State.

Students in Pennsylvania College of Technology’s radiography major recently expanded their professional perspective, attending the American Society of Radiologic Technologists annual Educational Symposium & House of Delegates Meeting. “It was truly great to see the technologists’ passion for the profession,” said student Anne M. Rosanelli, of Troy. “It made me feel excited to become a technologist in the radiographic profession.”

Pennsylvania College of Technology has appointed Elizabeth S. Gizenski to director of its surgical technology program. Gizenski, a registered nurse and certified surgical technologist, had been the program’s clinical director since 2005. She received the college’s award for Excellence in Academic Advising in 2019.

A nursing director at Pennsylvania College of Technology co-authored a piece, published recently in Rehabilitation Nursing Journal, that reveals a drop in hospital readmission rates among rehabilitation patients when nurses implement a “teach-back” patient education strategy. Kelly T. Bidlespacher, director of nursing-bachelor’s and graduate degrees at Penn College, pursued the evidence-based practice improvement project as part of her doctoral studies.

The Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education recently reaffirmed its accreditation of Pennsylvania College of Technology’s physical therapist assistant major. The reaffirmation extends the program’s accreditation for the next 10 years. The reaffirmation is based on a self-study by the college and a visit to campus by CAPTE.

Pennsylvania College of Technology’s dental hygiene Class of 2024 represents the most men the program has ever enrolled. Forty students are accepted into the program each year. Five men are part of the cohort set to graduate May 10.

Jordyn G. Nichols, a sophomore pursuing a bachelor’s degree in nursing, was featured in a Jan. 6 Williamsport Sun-Gazette story for the care she provided to a patient’s pup. When Chad Losell learned the arrangements he’d made for his dachshund to be cared for while he had heart surgery had fallen through, he considered postponing the life-saving procedure. “It obviously was causing tremendous stress on him, and I just wanted to take care of that completely,” Nichols told the Sun-Gazette’s Pat Crossley.

On their last clinical day at Janet Weis Children's Hospital in Danville, students in Penn College's LPN to RN program shared the spirit of giving with pediatric patients and their families, gifting them with new toys, books and activities for the holiday season.