Entry level: associate degree--are we ready?

We need to look at the educational preparation of the surgical technologist and consider the move to a single entry level, the associate degree. There are reasons to support the community college associate degree program. Cost effectiveness, integration into the main stream of allied health education, access to experts in their fields, controlled laboratory and clinical experience, transferability, and upward mobility are just a few. Let us learn from the problems of multiple entry that now plague nursing education. We are young enough not to have become entrenched. Let us declare a single entry, associate degree level now.