Courtney Balleza prepares a dummy for surgery in the New England Institute of Technology’s surgical technology program operating room. Behind her are two other students in the program.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

Pat the Patient is a forgiving sort. He (or she) doesn’t mind being poked with sharp objects, or having his innards examined by total strangers. That’s probably because Pat is a plastic dummy, used to train surgical technologists at the New England Institute of Technology.

Pat mostly lies around in the simulated operating room NEIT has built on the second floor of its technology center at 2500 Post Rd., in Warwick. The room is designed to resemble a genuine operating room as closely as possible, with operating tables, surgical lighting and sinks where students can scrub away potentially dangerous bacteria. Cabinets along a side wall hold an array of equipment — clamps, retractors, blades, syringes, towels, sutures, dressings and much more.

Tuesday morning, two teams of surgical technology students from NEIT — scrubbed, gowned, gloved and masked — were setting up for basic abdominal surgery under the supervision of associate Prof. Charlene DiNobile, who demonstrated everything from the right way to help a surgeon into a gown to how the instrument tables should be positioned by the operating table.

“One of the things we teach our students is economy of motion, because in an emergency they’re going to have to be quick,” she said.

Surgical techs are not nurses, but they perform a variety of functions in the operating room — preparing the operating room, setting up instruments and equipment, and “draping” the area around the surgical site with sterile coverings to reduce the risk of infection. It’s the surgical technologist who actually hands the instruments to the surgeon, anticipating the doctor’s needs as much as possible. (Incidentally, instruments are placed, not slapped, into the surgeon’s hands.)

There was a lot of counting going on inside the simulated operating room Tuesday, since one of the surgical technologist’s functions is to keep track of all the instruments, sponges, needles, blades and other equipment used in an operation.

Among those counting was Kevin Somerville, of Narragansett. Somerville, 54, said he’s been a self-employed medical illustrator for 30 years, but with the state’s economy in the doldrums, he is looking for a steadier source of income.

“I’ve been in the O.R. a lot to illustrate things, so I feel comfortable in there,” he said. “But I’ve never really been part of it. . . I might have some advantages in terms of anatomy. But as far as techniques go, I’m at the same level as everyone else. It’s interesting, going to school with people who are 30 years younger than I am.”

Kristin Whaley, 29, of Wakefield, said she saw an ad for the surgical technologist program on TV, called NEIT, and within days was enrolled in the program. Whaley said she had worked for 10 years as a certified nursing assistant at an area nursing home. “I worked for 10 years doing everything to the outside of someone’s body; I thought it would be interesting to see what’s on the inside,” she said. “It’s very interesting and very challenging, and I like a challenge.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs for surgical technologists were expected to grow from 86,000 in 2006 to 107,000 in 2016, an increase of 24 percent. As of 2006, the median annual salary income for surgical technologists was $36,080. About 70 percent of the jobs were in hospitals, with the remainder in doctors’ offices or ambulatory surgical centers.

Bureau of Labor statistics indicate that as of May 2007, there were 260 surgical technologists in Rhode Island, with an average annual salary of $42,840. Health care is considered an area of job growth in the state, which currently has the highest unemployment rate in the country.

The surgical technology program at NEIT, which leads to an associate degree, is an 18-month program with about 130 students. Patricia Blakemore, director of career services for NEIT, said the job picture for graduates is good. “There are opportunities for everyone who wants to work,” she said.

Lisa Reed, head of the department of surgical technology at NEIT, said the need for surgical technologists is growing as hospitals expand and private medical practices add surgical capabilities of their own. But she points out that it’s a demanding job that requires considerable knowledge, concentration, and the need to keep up with a constantly changing technology. (It’s not for the squeamish, either.)

Diane Skorupski, head of PeriOperative Services at Rhode Island Hospital, said the hospital employs about 65 surgical technologists. “They’re a very, very important part of the surgical team. We’d be lost without them,” she said. Skorupski said the national demand for surgical technologists is usually high, although right now there are not a lot of openings at Rhode Island Hospital. A spokesperson for Lifespan, which includes Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Miriam Hospital, Newport Hospital and Bradley Hospital, said the hospital system has about four vacancies for surgical technologists.

Skorupski said surgical technologists are not licensed by the state, as nurses are, but they can be certified by independent organizations such as the National Board of Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting.

Reed said NEIT encourages students to become certified but doesn’t require it. Certification, she said, makes a surgical technologist more marketable, and some hospitals require certification before hiring a technologist.

The NEIT surgical technology program includes courses in anatomy, physiology, microbiology and pharmacology as well as hands-on training, first in the NEIT simulated operating room and then in the real thing. All students in the program undertake 20-week clinical rotations at hospitals in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Students work three days a week and have to scrub in on a minimum of 125 cases.

Reed said NEIT could probably expand its surgical technology program, but it’s limited by the number of hospital slots available for students in the area. A map on the wall of the NEIT operating room uses colored pins, stretching from New London to Cape Cod, to represent hospitals where students are working.

Jackie Provost, 22, of Bellingham, Mass., did her clinical work at Milford Whitinsville Regional Hospital, in Milford, Mass. “I loved it,” she said. “The nurses were very patient, and the surgeons so willing to teach. They just want to get you in there and involved right away … they don’t tell you to stand over there and not touch.”

Meghan Kelley, 21, of New Bedford, commutes to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston by train, getting up at 4 a.m. three days a week to be there on time. Even though she’s still in the middle of her clinical rotation, she said, the hospital has already offered her a job, which she plans to accept.

Kelley said she was not an especially good student in high school, and had “no college ambition.” She was working as a waitress, but lost her job after she broke her arm. A friend of hers was planning to go to the surgical technologist program at NEIT, and urged Kelley to go, too. So she did, and found the motivation that was missing in high school.

Reed said many of the NEIT students end up being hired by the hospitals where they do their clinical work. “It’s like a 20-week job application,” she said. “They get to know you, you get to know them.”

Andrew Fontaine, 23, of Tiverton, did his training at Newport Hospital and the Veterans Administration Hospital in Providence. “It was intense at first. They want you to know what you’re doing,” he said. A combat medic in the Army Reserve, Fontaine plans to enlist in the Army, go to officer training school, and become an operating room technician.

“I’ve always been interested in plastic surgery, and my eventual goal is to become a surgeon,” he said. “This is a great step. You learn a lot here.”

For information about the surgical technology program at New England Institute of Technology, contact the admissions office at (800) 736-7744 or go to the Web site at www.neit.edu.

asmith@projo.com