North Idaho College offers programs for in-demand health care jobs
NIC Surgical Technology student Kahlea Herbert participates in a mock surgery on Nov. 6, 2024, in a simulation lab at the Meyer Health and Sciences Building at NIC’s Coeur d’Alene campus. Courtesy photo.
COEUR d’ALENE — With health care roles in high demand throughout the Panhandle and beyond, North Idaho College offers an array of health care-related training courses that put students on the path to build careers in the medical field.
“If you’re investing your time and money into an education, you want to be sure it counts,” said NIC President Nick Swayne. “Nearly 100% of our students complete their programs and pass their national exams.”
Indeed, all eight recent graduates of NIC’s Radiography Technology Program passed the national board exam on their first try, surpassing the 2024 national average pass rate of 79%.
The college also recently celebrated a perfect success rate for its latest surgical technology graduates. All nine students in the 2025 graduating class passed the National Board of Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting certification exam on their first attempt. The national first-time pass rate of 66.8%.
Janis McClelland is the director of the Dental Hygiene program at NIC. The program’s second cohort graduated last fall, while the third cohort started this spring. McClelland said all the students from the first two graduating classes are licensed and employed.
“We’re excited for them to start their careers,” she said.
During the pinning ceremony for the second graduating class in December 2024, John Pulsipher of Riverstone Dental Care noted that four NIC-based graduates had accepted job offers at his practice. He added that the demand for dental hygienists has driven wages nationwide, with new graduates in North Idaho earning $50 per hour, up from $32 an hour in 2008.
McClelland said the high demand for dental hygienists is partly due to the number of baby boomers who retired from health care fields during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s a huge need,” she said. “There just aren’t enough dental hygienists to really take care of all the patient care needs for our local dentists. They often employ two or three hygienists.”
McClelland emphasized the rigorous education that dental hygienists receive.
“We take the same courses your dentist takes,” she said. “We don’t learn how to put a crown on or fill a filling, but we’re all about health and assessments and preventative care.”
Aidan McFall is the director of the Medical Laboratory Technology program at NIC, which prepares students to enter a little-known but in-demand field.
Medical laboratory technologists perform laboratory procedures, including low, medium and high-complexity testing. NIC’s programs includes instruction in phlebotomy, medical microbiology, hematology, medical chemistry, urinalysis and bodily fluids and lab operations and more.
“We do a whole cadre of testing that your health care provider needs,” McFall said. “It fills your charts, and yet you don’t know we exist as a profession.”
The U.S. produces about 5,000 medical laboratory technologists each year, McFall said, but that’s not enough to meet the demand.
“There is an enormous need for people to go through programs like ours and then become nationally certified,” she said. “I can’t say enough about the pressing need for the fulfillment of this career, in terms of the impact on individual lives.”
Idaho residents can complete the program in two years, including prerequisites, and some employers will pay for their employees to complete a four-year degree in a related field so they can earn Medical Laboratory Scientist (MLS) certification.
“We have folks in their early 20s who are graduating debt-free and having that employer complete their bachelor’s,” McFall said. “Over the course of their lifespan, that’s hundreds of thousands of dollars’ difference.”
Students who complete the program with a preexisting bachelor’s degree in a related field will be eligible for MLS certification right away.
“The times are such that people really need to know you have an entire cadre of jobs available to them through this national certification,” McFall said.
McFall said the career of a medical laboratory technologist is both stable and flexible.
“We’ve had several people who have gone part-time to raise kids or take care of an ailing parent and they’ve gone right back to full-time work,” she said. “You’re not penalized for moving positions.”
NIC dental hygiene student Jessica Reineccius examines a patient on Nov. 10, 2023, at the NIC Dental Hygiene Clinic in Winton Hall at NIC’s Coeur d’Alene campus.
