LEWISBURG -- Abbey Vanderlin visited Evangelical Community Hospital's recent surgical workshop and remembered what it was like to be in the shoes of the students in attendance.

"It's nerve-wracking," she said. "You are nervous because you never did rotations before."

Vanderlin stopped by the Penn College physician assistant surgical workshop last week, hosted by the hospital, where students were learning and practicing techniques for laparoscopic surgery.

Surgeons with Central Susquehanna Surgical Specialists, PC and members of the hospital's medical staff taught students different skills used throughout the field, including knot tying, suturing, sterile techniques and laparoscopic assisting. The students were also given the opportunity to visit the operating room.

"They are not spoon-fed," said John F. Turner, a surgeon with Central Susquehanna Surgical Specialists. "... They are looking at and determining what's important."

Julie Edkin, a physician assistant faculty member at Penn Tech, said the workshop is an annual event where the 29 students come to practice using surgical instruments.

"It's one of the few times they go into the hospital," she said.

Students have 24 months of professional experience -- 12 months classroom education and 12 months of clinical.

Edkin said the students learn family medicine, internal medicine, psychology, pediatrics, surgery, emergency room and primary care.

"I want the students to get an appreciation for the surgery environment," she said, "and to recognize the role a PA can serve in surgical situations."

She added sterile techniques and ways to prevent infection are also important.

Vanderlin recalled the workshop to be very helpful in her experience entering the clinical field.

"You have limited time to do hands-on in the school, so this helped," she said. "It's invaluable. It's really remarkable that people with this expertise take time to help out."

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