Graduates from Moraine Park’s Medical Laboratory Technician (MLT) class are beginning new careers as certified Medical Laboratory Technicians!

This year, nine students graduated from the program and have begun working in the field. All of the students successfully passed the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP) National Certification Exam on their first attempt to become official MLT (ASCP) employees. This is quite the accomplishment, since the national average for passing the ASCP Board of Certification Exam on the first attempt is 83 percent.

Medical Laboratory Technicians play a main role in the diagnosis and treatment of patients through evaluation of patient specimens and reporting accurate results to physicians and other health care team members. The need for skilled professionals is in high demand as the field of laboratory science continues to expand and a large number of the current workforce is retiring. Employment opportunities are abundant throughout the United States.

For more information about this career, contact Linda Bau, MLT Program Director at lbau@morainepark.edu or (920) 924.3314. 

I hope to hear from you soon!

Last month, first semester Moraine Park nursing students helped residents get ready for their annual prom at the Fond du Lac St. Francis Home.

The students used their clinical time to provide hair and nail care, and dress the residents for their big event! The students enjoyed the one-on-one time to pamper the residents and give personalized care.

St. Francis Home hosts the resident prom each spring with a live music from a local high school band and invites family members to participate. So much fun!

For more program information, visit morainepark.edu/programs.

Nursing students in Instructor Michele Mengert’s Mental Health and Community Concepts course recently completed their community advocacy projects as part of our Spring, 2019 service learning opportunities. Michele said, “students are purposefully working to learn community oriented nursing. We want to target prevention as a priority. Nurses need to understand how to advocate for specific populations of people and have knowledge of the resource programs in your community that you can partner with to help your patients.”

This semester 17 students spent over 80 hours researching and collaborating with community partners to learn more about planned parenthood, poverty, women & infants, suicide, domestic violence, opioid abuse, water quality, and more. Students formulated detailed advocacy plans to address how a nurse could help a community identify and address these issues, providing education, awareness, advocacy and resources. Students gathered data to help determine strengths and weaknesses in their own communities. Project presentations were held on May 17.

Congratulations on all of this great work on important community issues!

Moraine Park Technical College has presented Serenity Hospice with its 2019 Community Partnership Award. This award recognizes a community non-profit or business partner organization who has gone above and beyond in their role of working with Moraine Park students in service learning opportunities.

Serenity Hospice is committed to providing the highest quality of care with a multidisciplinary team, serving patients and their families through every stage of end of life care. Moraine Park Medical Assistant students are important members of the hospice team! Volunteers are specially trained to provide support to the patient and family such as socialization, visitation, and helping with administrative tasks such as scanning, filing, alphabetizing, faxing, data entry, scheduling and collating. In 2019, MPTC student service learning volunteers spent over 240 hours at Serenity Hospice!

Ashley Wissinger, Volunteer & Bereavement Coordinator for Serenity Hospice said, “Thank you so much for this award!  We’ve had a lot of wonderful student volunteers from Moraine Park. The award is lovely and is proudly displayed. It was so great to meet your team and put faces with names!  It is truly an honor to work with the Moraine Park students.  We appreciate everything you and your team do to ensure your students are successful.”

Moraine Park Technical College works to bring quality education to the students, which in turn will benefit the communities where they live and work. Students who participate are required to log their volunteer hours, which count towards earning a Service-Learning Award.  Opportunities such as this allow students to make community connections prior to graduation and work through real-life scenarios. The partnership created by Moraine Park Technical College and Serenity Hospice will continue to benefit both of our organizations, the student volunteers, and the patients and families that are being served.

For more information on Moraine Park Technical College, visit morainepark.edu.

On May 16, Moraine Park Technical College nursing students assisted St. Agnes Hospital with their tornado evacuation drill. The 14 first- year nursing students helped by acting as patients for the staff to evacuate from various inpatient units across the hospital. Through this experience, the students were able to represent Moraine Park in the community and provide feedback during a debriefing reviewing the policies and procedures for hospital evacuation situations. They will also be able to apply the knowledge they gained to their third-semester mental health course when they further discuss emergency situations!

For more information Moraine Park Technical College, visit morainepark.edu.

Moraine Park Technical College nursing program celebrated the pinning of 51 students at their spring ceremony on May 17. This symbolic event represents the beginning of a nursing career. As well, it serves as an end to the Moraine Park journey and a celebration of the opportunities that lay ahead.

Additionally, the College is also celebrating a historic year by graduating 12 males from the program for the first time ever.

“We are seeing more non-traditional students in fields that have historically been either male or female dominated,” Bonnie Baerwald, president of Moraine Park Technical College said. “The increase of males in the nursing field shows that success in the industry is a result of educated skills, not gender, and brings the opportunity for a diverse work atmosphere within our healthcare systems.”

The students who received their nursing pins at the spring 2019 ceremony are Alyssa Ahlstrom of Westfield; Rosie Alsum of Brandon; Lindsay Birschbach of Fond du Lac; Erica Breitenstein of West Bend; Megan Calbaum of Princeton; Nicole Claerbout of West Bend; Danielle Cleland of Fond du Lac; Jamie Droppers of West Bend; Amanda Dylak of Beaver Dam; April Eck of Potosi; Briar Eck of Potosi; Nikki Eiring of Fond du Lac; Melissa Endries of Pipe; Katherine Erickson of Cedarburg; Carissa Ewald of Ripon; Ben Falter of West Bend; Cassie Florine of Hartford; Hunter Godfroy of Oakfield; Holly Hoagland of West Bend; Emma Holland of Waupun; Kelly Jacobs of Fond du Lac; Andrew Keel of Beaver Dam; Aubrey Kerr of West Bend; Maggie Kollmann of Fond du Lac; Caroline Krebs of West Bend; Jamie Nicholas of Waupun; Jared Obendorfer of West Bend; Jennifer Plummer of Sun Prairie; Jonathan Ratzel of Fredonia; Parker Resop of Horicon; Katie Retzlaff of North Lake; Jennifer Roeseler of Fond du Lac; Katrina  Salva of Watertown; Frederick Schellgell of Oshkosh; Amanda Schmidt of Beaver Dam; Julie Schumacher of Fond du Lac; Catherine Seibel of Fond du Lac; Kaitlyn Shallow of Watertown; Katelyn Sharp of Ripon; Natasha Sokoloff of New Holstein; Riley Stegemeyer of Slinger; Jonathan Szczesny of Horicon; Courtney Tennies of Kewaskum;  Alexi Turnage of Fond du Lac; Chelsea Turner of Fond du Lac; Mikayla Van Ooyen of Kewaskum; Christian Walding of Milwaukee; Aubrey Weidemann of Columbus; Kaitlyn Woo of West Bend; Shelby Wulff of Waupun; Tanya Zangl of Fond du Lac.

The students accepted their nursing diplomas at the College’s annual commencement ceremony on May 18. They will continue studying through the early part of the summer in preparation for their National Council Licensure Examination to earn their Registered Nursing License. In 2018, Moraine Park’s nursing pass rates were an impressive 99 percent, and currently, the program ranks in the top 10 for nursing programs in Wisconsin.

For more information on Moraine Park’s nursing program, visit morainepark.edu/nursing.

Congrats to Moraine Park’s nursing program on a HUGE accomplishment.

The College’s 2018 National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) Nursing pass scores raised from 96% to 99%!

What this means?

That 99% of Moraine Park Nursing students pass their NCLEX exam!

For comparison, the national pass rate average is 85%.

Congrats to the students and faculty for working hard to provide top-notch nurses ready to provide quality care in the field!

morainepark.edu/nursing

Interviewing and accepting positions in local health care facilities prior to graduation. $2500-$3000 sign on bonuses. Say What???? Imagine all this being possible in 1 year!

The career opportunities of the Medical Assistant are trending in our area and they are looking for YOU! There are currently 130+ openings for Medical Assistants through our local health care facilities including Froedtert, Aurora, Agnesian, UW Health, and Beaver Dam Community Hospital.

What is a Medical Assistant, you ask? A medical assistant is an integral part of the health care team that supports the work of physicians and other health care providers in the clinic setting. They are able to support both the administrative and clinical aspects of the health care facility.

What do our Medical Assistants learn? Our students are taught administrative tasks such as scheduling, coding, and billing. They also get to perform hands on skills such as obtaining vital signs, assisting with procedures, drawing blood, giving injections, performing EKGs, and running various laboratory tests performed in the physician’s office.

At the West Bend Campus we are proud to offer a cohort model to provide an accelerated learning opportunity. Within a years’ time our students will complete their education and obtain a technical diploma as a medical assistant.

Want to learn more? We are offering an orientation to our program on the West Bend Campus on 5/16 from 9-1130am. If you want IN on this amazing opportunity please contact Moraine Park Advisor Marisa Arneson or Program Instructor Erika Herriges. We look forward to helping your achieve your goals!

Erika Herriges RN, BSN MA/MO Cohort Instructor West Bend Campus

eherriges@morainepark.edu

Marisa Arneson, MPTC Academic Advisor West Bend Campus

marneson@morainepark.edu

On April 10, 2019 Tri-County Boys and Girls Club kids in grades 5-11 were excited to meet and learn with Moraine Park Medical Assistant student Merinda Chamberlin!

Experiential Learning Coordinator Anne Lemke said, “Our MA student Merinda did a great job with the kids! She taught them about healthcare careers at MPTC and shared her own Nursing Assistant and Medical Assistant journey. They had their pulse ox checked and learned what all the breathing oxygen numbers meant and played a fun game of Medical Assistant Word Search. A big thank you to the Moraine Park Medical Assistant students for providing kids with a chance to learn about medical careers and the many jobs in healthcare available all around us!”

The Dream Big project started last year with Boys and Girls Club of Fond du Lac teens learning more about the over 100 careers available through MPTC.  This year, Dream Big is expanding throughout the MPTC district to include Boys and Girls Club of the Tri-County Area (Berlin, Green Lake County) and Boys and Girls Club of Washington County (West Bend).  This is a great community partnership opportunity for Moraine Park students to showcase their careers and practice service learning  and for Boys and Girls Club members to get excited about career choices!

For more information on Moraine Park, visit morainepark.edu.