Des Moines Area Community College’s Surgical Technology Program has received the annual merit award from the National Board of Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting for achieving a 100 percent pass rate on the Certified Surgical Technologist exam for the most recent exam cycle that ended July 31. The CST exam is widely recognized in the health care community as the foremost credential for surgical technologists in the nation. The most recent DMACC class included 11 who took and passed the exam; this is the fourth consecutive year that 100 percent of DMACC students in the program passed the exam. John Hadley, surgical technology professor and the program chair at DMACC, said national certification is his No. 1 goal for the program. Iowa does not require surgical technologists to be certified; approximately 450 out of 2,000 surgical technologists working in Iowa operating rooms have CST certification, Hadley said.