Metropolitan Community College-Longview: Programs and Courses for a Healthcare Career
Metropolitan Community College (MCC) is an open-access institution committed to providing accessible higher education. With campuses like MCC-Longview, MCC aims to educate students through credit and noncredit courses and business services. Offering over 120 degrees and certificates grouped into eight Academic and Career Pathways, MCC provides a starting point for various career aspirations. For those interested in healthcare, MCC-Longview presents several programs and courses designed to prepare students for diverse roles in the medical field.
Pathways to Healthcare Careers at MCC-Longview
MCC provides personalized student success advising to help students choose, stay on, and graduate from their chosen path. These pathways are designed to lead students directly into the workforce or facilitate a transfer to a four-year university for further studies. MCC-Longview offers programs that cater to various healthcare interests, from direct patient care to administrative and technical roles.
Direct Patient Care Programs
- Nursing: MCC offers pathways to becoming Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) and Registered Nurses (RNs). LPNs provide care to sick, injured, recovering, or disabled patients under the supervision of an RN, administering medications, monitoring vital signs, and observing patient conditions. RNs assess patient health problems, develop and implement care plans, maintain medical records, monitor patient conditions, and report changes to physicians.
- Dental Assisting and Hygiene: Students can train to become dental assistants, who assist dentists, keep patient records, and set up equipment, or dental hygienists, who clean teeth, remove stains and deposits, and examine teeth and gums for signs of disease.
- Emergency Medical Services: MCC offers programs for aspiring ambulance drivers, EMTs, and paramedics. Ambulance drivers transport patients in emergency situations. EMTs assess injuries and administer emergency medical care. Paramedics, highly trained EMTs, provide advanced care to accident victims.
- Medical Assisting: Medical assistants perform administrative and clinical duties under a physician's direction, including scheduling appointments, maintaining medical records, and handling billing and coding for insurance.
- Surgical Technology: Surgical technologists assist surgeons, anesthesiologists, RNs, and other personnel during surgical procedures.
- Physical Therapist Assistant: Physical therapist assistants work under the direction of physical therapists to assist patients with exercises, apply treatments, and perform modalities.
Medical Imaging and Technology Programs
- Radiologic Technology: Radiologic technologists work in medical settings, performing x-rays to assist physicians in diagnosing medical ailments.
- CT and MRI Technology: Students can specialize as CT (computed tomography) technologists, taking cross-sectional x-ray images, or magnetic resonance imaging technologists, operating MRI machinery to create detailed pictures of internal body structures.
- Nuclear Medicine Technology: Nuclear medicine technologists assist physicians and work directly with patients, explaining nuclear medicine procedures.
- Radiation Therapy: Radiation therapists provide radiation therapy to patients as prescribed by a radiologist, preparing equipment and acting as a liaison with physicians.
- Medical Equipment Repair: Medical equipment repairers test, calibrate, and repair medical equipment, keeping records of maintenance and updates.
- Perfusion Technology: Perfusionists operate and monitor equipment that keeps oxygen-rich blood pumping through the circulatory system during medical procedures.
- Sterile Processing: Sterile processing technicians clean and sterilize surgical instruments and supplies, maintaining records and assembling instrument trays.
Healthcare Administration and Support Programs
- Medical Billing and Coding: MCC offers training for hospital billing clerks, who handle medical record coding and insurance communication, and coders, who assign codes to medical procedures for insurance billing.
- Health Information Management: Health information managers handle patient records, playing a vital role in maintaining data quality and confidentiality.
- Medical Transcription: Medical transcriptionists convert voice recordings from healthcare professionals into written reports.
- Medical Secretary: Medical secretaries perform secretarial duties, utilizing medical terminology and knowledge of healthcare procedures.
- Healthcare Management: Programs are available for those interested in becoming medical and health services managers, planning and directing medical services in various organizations.
- Healthcare Marketing: Health care marketing managers work in public relations, communications, or policy creation within healthcare organizations.
- Healthcare IT: MCC offers programs in computer and information systems management, computer network architecture, computer support, computer systems analysis, and information security. These programs prepare students to design, install, maintain, and secure hospital computer systems and networks.
Mental and Behavioral Health Programs
- Social Work and Counseling: Students can pursue careers as community health workers, health care social workers, mental health counselors, or rehabilitation counselors. These professionals provide support, counseling, and resources to individuals and families dealing with health and social issues.
- Clinical Psychology: Clinical psychologists assess and treat mental health issues, developing and supervising mental health programs.
- Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: Psychiatric mental health registered nurses assess mental health needs and work with individuals, families, and communities.
- Counseling: Counselors provide counseling and treatment to those with mental health or substance abuse issues.
Additional Healthcare Roles
- Accountancy: Accountants ensure hospitals run efficiently by analyzing and communicating financial information.
- Executive Assistance: Executive secretaries provide high-level administrative support to hospital administrators.
- General and Operations Management: General and operations managers plan, direct, and coordinate hospital operations.
- Physician Liaison: Physician liaisons develop relationships with physicians to facilitate beneficial referring practices.
- Biomedical Engineering: Biomedical engineers apply engineering principles to solve medical problems.
- Child Life Specialist: Child life specialists provide care to children facing medical procedures or illness.
- Athletic Training: Athletic trainers help prevent and treat injuries among athletes.
- Hospital Housekeeping and Janitorial Services: Hospital housekeepers and janitors maintain a clean and sterile environment within healthcare facilities.
- Nurse Administration: Nurse administrators create work schedules, give performance reviews and develop work policies for nurses.
- Nurse Midwife: Nurse midwives diagnose and coordinate all aspects of the birthing process.
- Nurse Practitioner: Nurse practitioners diagnose and treat both sudden and long-term conditions.
- Nursing Instructor: Nursing instructors lead, develop and organize teaching programs.
Academic Courses
MCC-Longview offers a range of academic courses that can serve as a foundation for healthcare careers or fulfill prerequisites for advanced programs. These include:
- Science: Biology (A.A. and A.S.), Chemistry (A.A. and A.S.), Physics (A.A.), Geology (A.A.)
- Social Sciences: Psychology (A.A.), Social Work (A.A.), Sociology (A.A.), Anthropology (A.A.), Economics (A.A.), Geography (A.A.), History (A.A.), Political Science (A.A.)
- Mathematics: Mathematics (A.A.)
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