Meeting & Agendas

Keri welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order at 2:04 p.m.

Number of students taking the exam is lower. Keri outlined the traditional and high school academy programs and noted that both sets of students have the same program but that the high school student program conducts their clinicals in the summer. The waitlist for getting into the Phlebotomy program is down to one semester. Keri mentioned the CE program run by Gloria Cantu. She noted that their numbers are not included here and that they are not accredited by NACCLS. The students are eligible to take the exam because the requirements are the class, lab and clinicals but they cannot share our accreditation. Keri has asked for but not received their curriculum. Savannah indicated that there was a big difference in several areas between the two programs' students. Keri went on to talk about the high school students and indicated that they must be TSI complete in reading and writing. She also indicated that the CE progam was shorter and they don't necessarily follow the semester model that the credit program follows. On the job placement graduate survey, about one-third of surveys are returned but of those returned all indicate they have a job. Most attrition in this program is from paperwork and CBC type issues.

Program is pretty safe. Only one issue this year with a fainter. We try our best to buy and use the equipment that the clinical sites are using so that they are using it in the labs on campus. The two most used are butterfly and vaccutainers.

Heath had a question about clinicals and Keri indicated that she keeps looking and hoping for a miracle for the second rotation. Gabriella mentioned work the depart is doing to put more material online and to make things more accessible. Keri mentioned though that we will still have hands on since this is the only way to make sure to see students. Keri also mentioned that the department is in the process of converting the old website the new Wordpress format. We are about 75% complete. This was a big project this year. Question from Heath about bilingual faculty. Keri indicated that we currently do not have any but that most of our ESL students are Vietnamese, Chinese, Middle Eastern and African. Keri mentioned that we are trying to have faculty mentors and pair male students with male faculty mentors and pairing ESL students so that they can help with translations. Meeting was complete at 3:45. Keri mentioned that next year the program will be doing their program review and SWOT to get feedback and streamline the process.

Keri reviewed the contents of the folders including the flyer for the Health Science Open House. She encouraged committee members to attend and mentioned that children interested in Health Science careers were also welcome to come. Faculty and students will be demonstrating to visitors what we learn in health science and showing off our labs. Also in the folder is information about items that can be donated to the department for program use. Keri mentioned that before the December break, they cleaned out a clinic that was closing of their supplies. Keri requested that you email her or Debbie Burns if you have anything that the program might be able to use. One item that needs to be updated are redacted hematology slides. Our current library of slides are starting to show their age. Old proficiency kits are also great to get. The last item in the folder is information about the Molecular Diagnostic program. We are still trying to offer this program but we need enough students to make a class. Keri also mentioned that we need help with recruiting applicants to our program. If you know of someone interested, have them do the information session through the link on the agenda. After an applicants completes the information session, they will be paired with a faculty member that will help them through the rest of the application process.

Introductions of all meeting participants was done. Keri also mentioned that the program had recently lost a faculty member and that the process has been started to hire for the Fall 2020 semester. She asked the committee to spread the word to anyone that might be interested in the position.

Keri outlined the duties of the positions and asked for nominations. Heath is the current vice chair. He nominated Loraine for chair and he agreed to remain vice chair. Stephanie Thayer is still secretary.

Annual meeting is in Galveston this April. There is a link on the agenda for anyone interested. Loraine noted that it is a worthwhile meeting the past two years that she has attended. Keri also mentioned that there would be an ASCP meeting in September at the Austin Convention Center.

In our curriculum we highlight venipuncture uses the anticubital site as the main site for blood draw. We discuss hand draws but we don't have time in phlebotomy to learn that skill. Wrist draws are not taught or promoted due to risk of injury. Keri mentioned that there seems to be an expectation of our students that they need to know hand draws and that some are pushing wrist draws on our students. She reminded the committee members that wrist draws are not part of the national standards. Keri noted that we practice on a dummy for the hand draws and that students do a limited number of live draws. Keri asked what are the expectations of the committee members. Savannah mentioned that her site does not expect that. The do not want to force a student to draw in a situation that they are uncomfortable with. Keri also mentioned a situation where a patient needed CPR and the student was instructed to do CPR but our students are not CPR trained.

Keri then discussed the number of job openings and are we meeting the needs of the sites. We regularly tell students about positions that are available. Pat Recek mentioned that the college is also doing a facilities master plan and any feedback on areas of growth would be welcome. She asked if there was a need for having this program at the Hays campus if the sites forsaw expansion of facilities in that area. Savannah mentioned that her big need is in New Braunfels and that she knows she will have a position there. Keri mentioned that we have to keep Texas State and Alamo Community College in mind since that is more in their service area. There was also mention of a second hospital being built in New Braunfels. Keri then asked if our students are meeting the standards that the sites expect and asked if there were any areas where they needed more training. Savannah said that she is always comfortable hiring an ACC graduate. There was a brief discussion about the difference between a credit student graduate versus a continuing education student graduate and Keri pointed out that we are not affiliated with the continuing education program.

Keri then asked what skills need to be observed and mention was made about observing a bone marrow. Keri observed that we do competency checks before they leave campus and if they don't pass after three attempts then they are out. Same thing with MLT. Keri asked if there are any MLT skills that they don't need and there were no comments from the members.

Keri noted that we are having a difficult time with clinical scheduling this year. Jim Donnally asked why we don't have permanent seats. Keri mentioned the high attrition rates and that we like to have student go to at least two different types of facilities. Gabriella Davis mentioned including our deadline to get students placed and mentioned the paperwork that some sites require. Is email a bad tool to do this? There are also online tools like FISDAP used by the EMT program that could be used. At the conclusion of rotations, students are surveyed about the site and the rotation (length, etc.). In MLT, there was not a microbiology rotation since there were not enough sites for three days per student. Students were only able to participate in an intensive sim lab on campus. All students did do a rotation through blood bank, hematology, and blood chemistry. Karey Meyer mentioned ARC hand positions. Keri Brophy Martinez had not heard of that but it will be something that they listen for. Keri noted that we try to catch and explain any bad behaviors so that they can be explained to mentors. Karey Meyer also mentioned that they don't encourage bad behaviors. Kimberly M. stated that Texas State sent a grid in November that she was able to use. The big difference with our program is that we are much more compact and we have exams after clinical. Savannah also mentioned her experience with Texas State program included 5 day clinicals with time spent in and out of the clinical. Keri mentioned reworking the curriculum to have 5 day rotations and have other date ranges. She mentioned that asking for two days is a hindrance. Kim Mathews indicated that next year they will be able to take some students.

Keri indicated that we lose most of our students due to academics and a large number are ESL students. When we reduced the number of hours, this hurt the program because there were not as many prep classes before getting into the program. The division has recently hired a student retention coordinator to help in this area. Some students think they can work full time and do the program and they struggle. We always recommend dropping work hours. We started this year with 23 and are down currently to 19. Next year, we expect to admit 24.

ASCP results indicate that we had one that failed the exam. This was one of our ESL students. Keri also shared the MLAB home page and indicated where we have more statistics on the program. We are scoring above the national average and we have some students with perfect scores on some sections of the test.