Shawnee Community College

The Associate Degree in Nursing Program is designed to provide career mobility for persons who have successfully completed a practical nursing program.

This unique program is designed to prepare the student for the practice of professional registered nursing as defined in the Illinois Nurse Practice Act and meets the requirements for approved schools in Associate degree Nursing in Illinois. This program does not maintain an open door policy. Admission to the program requires a separate application and admission test. Upon satisfactory completion of the program, the student will be eligible to write the NCLEX-RN Examination.

This curriculum is designed to prepare students for entry into the vocation of Practical Nursing. The curriculum includes theory coordinated with related clinical experience in the nursing care of patients as defined in the Illinois Nurse Practice Act.

This program is designed to teach and train the student to function as an integral part of a health care team, under the direction of a registered or licensed nurse, in nursing homes or home health care settings.

Upon satisfactory completion of the program, the student will be eligible to take the State of Illinois Nurse Aide Competency test.

This less-than-one-year certificate is designed to provide the student with the knowledge and skills necessary for entry-level employment in a variety of health-related facilities as a medical biller.

This one-year curriculum is designed to provide the student with the knowledge and skills necessary for entry-level employment in a variety of health-related facilities as a medical coding specialist.

Graduates of the Medical Coding Specialist program are eligible to sit for the Certified Coding and Billing Specialist certification exam administered by the National Healthcare Association. Successful completion of the exam confers the title of Certified Coding and Billing Specialist (CBCS). Shawnee Community College is an approved testing site for the CBCS exam which is given two times a year (March and August)

The Medical Laboratory Technology Associate Degree in Applied Science program is offered at the community colleges through the Southern Illinois Collegiate Common Market (SICCM). The student will learn the technical skills necessary to perform routine studies in areas of hematology, serology, coagulation, clinical microbiology, clinical chemistry, blood banking, and urinalysis. The medical laboratory technician will also perform patient venipuncture and will maintain quality control data.

The Associate in Applied Science Degree in Occupational Therapy Assistant is offered at four community colleges through Southern Illinois Collegiate Common Market. Five students are admitted from each college for an entering total of twenty. Admitted students take general education courses on their own campuses and OTA courses together in a central laboratory. After classes and fieldwork internship are completed, they graduate at their entering college.

The OTA courses have both lecture and hands-on laboratory components. Portions of the lecture section of several OTA courses are web-based. During the program, students will develop entry-level competencies necessary to provide services to persons of all ages who have functional loss due to physical, neurological, social/emotional, cognitive, or developmental disabilities.

The profession tailors rehabilitation individually for each client. Through evaluation and treatment, it seeks to restore or improve function in occupational performance. Treatment is provided within the context of the client’s life environments and relationships. Occupation may be defined as the ordinary things people do each day to work, to play, and to take care of themselves. Occupational therapy is based on the idea that our personal identity and feeling of value is closely tied to what we are able to do. We all choose many “occupational” roles that are important to us and make us excited to engage in life. When our function becomes impaired, we may lose both our independence and sense of self-worth.

The practice of OT utilizes the therapeutic use of purposeful and meaningful occupations in treatment, as well as focusing on these occupations as the goal of treatment. OT intervention may include restoration of performance abilities; instruction in compensatory techniques; adaptation of tasks, processes, or environments; disability prevention techniques; and health promotion strategies. Occupational therapy assistants, under the supervision of an occupational therapist, will directly work with persons to achieve a maximum level of independent living by developing the capacities that remain after disease, accident, or other disability.

The Surgical Technology certificate program is a one-year program offered at the community colleges through the Southern Illinois Collegiate Common Market. This program is designed to provide students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to practice as certified surgical technologists.

Students successfully completing the program will be fully qualified for jobs as scrub surgical technologists and circulating surgical technologists. Program graduates will be eligible for employment in hospitals, surgical centers, and clinics and physicians offices. The program is offered off-campus in a central laboratory.

Individuals will be trained to apply technical knowledge and skills to repair, reconstruct, and finish automobile bodies, fenders, and external features. Individuals will be instructed in all phases of body work preparation, finishing, shop safety, and appraising damage.

This certificate will prepare students for employment in areas of the automotive field such as dealerships, independent garages, service stations, and specialty shops which cover tune-ups and brakes. Students will learn basic shop operations, diagnoses, basic repair, interpretation of manuals, and skillful use of tools and equipment.

This one-year program is designed to provide the student with the necessary knowledge and skills required for employment as an automotive technician’s assistant.

The Automotive Technology program is designed to provide the student with the necessary knowledge and
skills for employment as a line technician, diagnostic technician, and factory representative or factory
technician. The Associate of Applied Science degree will be awarded upon successful completion of this
curriculum, which combines laboratory work and diagnostic skills to prepare the student for employment. This
program is articulated with SIUC’s Automotive Technology Program.

This program incorporates career and personal development skills that will meet employer needs for the long haul and over the road trucking industries as well as student expectations for employment. The curriculum will provide the student with a strong understanding of the transportation industry. The student will be provided with the necessary skills and knowledge to successfully obtain licensure through the State of Illinois, meeting Department of Transportation and commercial driver’s licensure requirements.

This certificate will provide basic knowledge to install, operate, and maintain basic residential wiring.

This certificate will provide basic knowledge to install, operate, and maintain basic residential wiring.

Arc – This less-than-one-year certificate is a study of welding processes used by industry concentrating on metallic arc welding on flat, horizontal, vertical, and overhead plates.

Gas – This less-than-one-year certificate is a study of the techniques, procedures and uses of oxyacetylene welding and cutting equipment

Mig – This less-than-one-year certificate provides the techniques of metallic inert gas (semi-auto welding). Concentration is on a flat bend test horizontal, vertical up-hill and down-hill and overhead welding.

Pipe – This less-than-one-year certificate is designed to teach up-hill and down-hill pipe welding-fixed position.

Tig – Tig welding is a gas-arc welding process using an inert gas to protect the weld zone from the atmosphere. The heat for welding is a very intense electric arc which is struck between a non-consumable tungsten electrode and work piece. Tig welding is more complex than regular arc welding. More emphasis is placed on the technology of metals. The student should be competent in arc and gas welding and have knowledge of metals, their properties and characteristics.

The Combination Welding program is designed to provide the student with the necessary knowledge and skills appropriate for employment in the areas of electric and oxyacetylene welding. Students completing this program should have sufficient preparation to become certified welders.

The computer information systems degree includes study in the major areas of programming, logic, analysis and design, computer operations, operating systems, database, data communications and advanced computer application packages. The curriculum will give the student a thorough background in computers, business education, and general education, which is required to compete in today’s business, industry, and government job environments. The student will be trained through classroom experience, “hands-on” computer operations, and practical applications.

The criminal justice technology certificate program is designed to provide the student with sufficient background for employment in the law enforcement profession.

This two-year curriculum leads to an Associate of Applied Science degree in Criminal Justice Technology and is designed to provide the student with sufficient background and competencies required for employment in the law enforcement profession.

This curriculum is designed to prepare students for employment in agencies which provide social services to the community. The program provides skills and knowledge to prepare students for employment in welfare agencies, municipal/recreation programs, social development projects, church-sponsored youth programs, and other private or public enterprises of human welfare.