‘Arts and crafts with a purpose’: Spokane Falls Community College’s program teaches students to make new limbs

Spokane Falls Community College student Brooke Harper is learning a medical profession that’s a combination of science, craft and art.

“I smoothed out my first plaster mold. And when I broke it out, it was so cool to know something I made could help someone,” Harper said as she glued a joint to the prosthetic she was making. “I’m super-excited to get out there after the year and do my thing and help patients. Because that’s what I always wanted to do – help people.”

The 19-year-old student is the next generation of a much-needed medical discipline – creating the plastic and plaster devices that help amputees move again. Each prosthetic must be painstakingly crafted by a professional to the exact measurements of a patient. Without that, the devices can be painful and may not even be functional.

While most such orthotic and prosthetic education programs focus on mid-career professionals seeking a master’s degree, SFCC’s one-year certification is aimed on those hoping to get their foot in the door. Most students come into the program with no prior experience.

“We’re trying to break the process down so we can take students who have got no experience working with their hands and train them up at in a year,” said Program Director Ambrose Cavegn. “By the end of that year, they make this remarkable transformation where they go from not knowing how to do a whole lot in a laboratory environment to being able to actually fabricate devices that could be fit on patients and allow them to walk again.”

SFCC has one of only a few of such early career programs and the only one in the western United States. The closest comparable orthotics and prosthetics program is in Minnesota.

Most professionals in the field begin their career at a hospital or clinic and are taught the process in-house. That can be time-consuming and expensive for the health care facilities, Cavegn said. It is also becoming harder as older professionals in the field retire. This void makes SFCC students highly valued.

“What we offer is the chance for students to get up to speed without it costing the clinic anything,” Cavegn said. “Our graduates are competent to start day one.”

Annual tuition and fees for the program are approximately $8,000. SFCC recently condensed their program from two years to one because so many of their students would get employment offers during their summer internship in-between the two years.

Harper came to Spokane from Colorado specifically to study at SFCC. She hopes to stay in Eastern Washington after graduation.

“When I did my research, this was one of the best integrated programs in the United States. And since I’ve been here, I’ve fallen in love with the area,” she said.

After they are done with the program, graduates can find work in-house at hospitals, at specialty clinics, or at industrial facilities that make prosthetics at a large scale. Hospital technicians typically adjust already existing devices, while other workers fabricate the devices.

The career also allows creative people who work with their hands to help people in the medical field.

“I call it arts and crafts with a purpose,” Cavegn said.

Harper pointed to a socket she made decorated with bees.

“While you have to be exact, I also like to work with my hands and be creative with what I make. This is a socket I’ve fallen in love with. I chose the fabric,” she said. “I love bees and the glitter got a bit messed up. But I don’t care because I made it myself and I think its really cool.”