By ERIN MATHEWS

Salina Journal

Helping students become adept on the computers and other pieces of equipment they will need to use on the job is part of the educational experience at Brown Mackie College's new Salina facility.

Criminal justice, occupational therapy assistant and veterinary technician students do their learning in classrooms and labs at 2525 S. Ohio that were designed with technology in mind.

The new 9,600-square-foot building, which opened in August 2009, added to the college's classroom space at 2106 S. Ninth.

Each of the new classrooms features a screen that can receive signals from a laptop computer, DVD or VCR player or a document viewer. When working on assignments or doing research, students can use one of the seven touch-screen computers in the computer lab.

"This facility is quite a palace," said Dave Forristal, chairman of the criminal justice department.

In criminal justice, Forristal has an air-evacuation chamber to remove the toxic fumes of gluing or fingerprinting. His lab is equipped with microscopes, fingerprinting supplies and other items needed to give hands-on experience of criminal investigation techniques.

Forristal said tool mark kits, blood splatter collection kits and hair and fiber kits similar to those contained in a police department crime scene van will soon be ordered to provide more law enforcement job training.

Most of the equipment needed in the occupational therapy lab was a little more commonplace. Moving to the new facility allowed room for a washer, dryer and oven, as well as bathroom equipment, so that students could practice moving a patient around.

Mindy Hill, occupational therapy assistant site coordinator, said technology does not play a large role in her department's lab, although students are exposed to adaptive equipment used on job sites when they complete internships in the community.

"Our goal in life is for people to be independent in their homes at the highest level possible," she said.

Forristal said that to prepare for an upcoming accreditation visit, the college has made most of its recent state-of-the-art technology acquisitions in the veterinary technology department.

Jan Grace, chairwoman of veterinary technology, said the accreditation review of the department's curriculum, procedures and facilities by representatives of the American Veterinary Association is scheduled for March 9 to 11.

The vet tech program was launched in the summer of 2009 and will graduate its first four "very excellent" students in August, Grace said. The college will be notified by May if the program is accredited, which would allow graduates to take the National Board examination and be licensed.

"They will check everything from the bleach bottle to the surgery table to all of our notebooks and paperwork," she said. "It's a very intensive three-day visit during which they talk to everyone from students to faculty to the president of the college."

Grace does not anticipate difficulty with the accreditation process -- especially in the areas of facilities and equipment.

"Our facility has top-of-the-line, new equipment," she said.

Dr. Callie Rost, a veterinarian on faculty in the department, said the department is fully equipped like a veterinary practice.

"Anything you'd find in the typical veterinary practice, we have the best equipment you can buy," Rost said. "They certainly didn't cut any corners."

Rost said that when Grace asked her to consider teaching, she visited the department and was "very impressed" with the facilities and equipment and with all that vet tech students learn in the two-year program.

"It's a very fast course of veterinary medicine, really," Rost said. "I've been amazed at how detailed the courses really are."

In a veterinary office, vet techs can handle many of the tasks that would usually be the responsibility of the veterinarian. Those might include completing physical examinations, giving vaccinations, preparing an animal for surgery, monitoring a patient under anesthesia, performing lab and minor surgical procedures, taking X-rays, cleaning teeth, and answering a pet owner's questions about medications and animal behavior.

To do all that, they must be proficient with several sensitive pieces of medical equipment, including the automated blood chemistry analyzer, EKG pulsometer and blood pressure monitors, Rost said.

All of those and more are available in the vet tech department's treatment room, so that vet techs leave the program knowing how to handle treatment and diagnostic tools.

"You can have all sorts of equipment, but if you don't know how to use it, it's not going to do you much good," Rost said.

Also in the treatment room is a dog mannequin used for practicing bandaging, applying splints and casts, tracheal tubing, resuscitation and taking X-rays. Rost said the treatment room also is stocked with puppy and kitten mannequins, so that future techs can practice reviving a newborn.

The radiography room houses the department's X-ray machine, which Rost said is high quality.

In the surgery prep area, students learn to operate the ultrasonic surgical instrument cleaner and the autoclave, a device that sterilizes instruments with high-pressure saturated steam.

Grace said the college has a working partnership with the Salina Animal Shelter, and students will be performing castration procedures on some of the shelter's animals in the state-of-the-art surgical room during the surgical unit.

Students already have spent time at the shelter learning how to hold dogs and cats during medical procedures, Rost said.

"A lot of students say, 'I want to do this because I love animals,' but you have to be a people person, too," Rost said. "They all come with owners."

n Reporter Erin Mathews can be reached at 822-1415 or by e-mail at emathews@salina.com.