Meeting & Agendas

The meeting was called to order by L. Garza. All members and guests were approved as written. Each member/guest introduced him/herself and their site of employment. Ms. Swearengin provided each attendee with handouts for the meeting.

Discussed the use of Teaching Files at the clinical sites; Mr. Garza and Mr. Dragoo both stated that a file of interesting cases is kept and that the students will be able to view those cases during their clinical days. Ms. Swearengin suggested that students be required to ask about interesting cases each week and completing a short report while in class about any of those cases. The group felt that this would be a good way to reinforce the sonographic appearances and impact of pathology so that future students will have a better grasp of sonographically apparent diseases.

The committee members approved the November 2009 meeting minutes as recorded.

Information Discussion

Information.

Admission class of 2010 following new curriculum Re-ordering of SPI courses appears to be effective Admission class of 2011 must meet all stated requirements to apply

CAAHEP accreditation status – reaccreditation awarded until 2013; will need to submit self-study with fees by May of 2011 to meet the 2013 deadline for completion of the reaccreditation process Current class cohort – total of 29 DMS students this semester (14 seniors and 15 juniors); total of 12 ESC-VT students (7 DMS, 5 DCS) in their second ESC-VT semester As of this date, all 14 DMS senior students have passed ARDMS SPI exam 25% of Sonography Degree Plans are Distance Learning courses with the use of hybrid and online courses in nearly every semester. Online courses have been well-received by the students; hybrid courses add a pre-class component and/or other online coursework to free up more time in the classroom for questions and use of the Sonography lab for demonstrations when needed. Changes to on-campus labs are scheduled for the Spring semester clinical course were discussed. The Sonography faculty are piloting a plan whereby the students attend the on-campus lab all day to scan volunteers are a variety of times, review all scanning that they record on DVD, review interesting cases, complete written assignments, and complete required assigned simulator cases (normals and pathologies). Benchmarks (normal and pathologies) and Challenges will be completed in a timely fashion. The faculty will be able to provide immediate feedback on scanning and other assistance in a time frame more conducive to student learning. The faculty will assess student progress at Spring Break to determine if the pilot format will be continued in the second half of the semester. Open lab time will be available to the students on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons; Saturday Open Labs will be held less frequently than in the past as faculty availability for those sessions is limited. General Information: The Sonography Programs continue to participate in school tours and other outreach activities when feasible; both the Health Sciences Admission and Information Office and the Sonography website continue providing interested individuals with up-dated Sonography Programs information, including information and guidance in the application process General Information: Both the SDMS Foundation and IFSER now provide scholarship funds to Sonography students; students have received copies of this information and are encouraged to apply for these scholarships; both organization offer scholarships to pay the fees for taking the ARDMS exams. General Information: Planning PPT presentations for Clinical Instructors (Preceptors) to update them on HIPAA and FERPA, how to deal with student issues and using forms provided by the program for documenting any issues, relating the content of instruction, information and rationale for exam “protocols” used by the Programs, etc.

The RRC is open and with the relocation of the DCS Program to RRC. The Sonography Lab is fully functional and sharing of the lab by the Programs.

The graduating class of 2009 (12 students) currently shows 9 students have ARDMS and 4 also have RVT. Ms. Swearengin has contacted the ARDMS for an up-to-date School Report but has not received the report at this time. It is expected that the ARDMS School Report will arrive in the next week and will be reviewed at the next Advisory Committee meeting (April, 2011).

The faculty and members discussed the number of jobs available for graduates vs. program enrollment. Mr. Garza related that his employer may be looking to hire in the future, but may require that new hire to be experienced in pediatric sonography. Mr. Dragoo related that his employer is expanding and more sonographers may need to be hired. Ms. Swearengin stressed that applicants and/or students are never told or led to believe that they will be able to find employment in the Austin/Central Texas area immediately upon graduation. Sonography advising stresses that there is a nationwide need for sonographers but that the needs are not as acute as in the past. Mr. Dragoo and Mr. Garza stated that they felt that ACC was meeting the needs of local employers very well. Some discussion ensued regarding where the majority of Sonography Programs graduates find jobs locally; it was mentioned that some facilities do not have few or any ACC Sonography Programs graduates working in their Sonography Departments. Some of the members related that new hires occupy a significant amount of time and they would prefer that graduates have more experience with pathology. The discussion again returned to the amount of time and types of exams that students can and will scan in the clinical setting. The committee members and faculty agreed that the Sonography Programs will continue to work to prepare students for both employment and the registry exams and will continue to expect students to participate in any and all clinical exams. Sonography students have the Lab to work on accuracy and improving scan time. Discussion was held regarding whether or not all AAS students should take the ESC-VT courses. The issue arises with the number of appropriate and available clinical sites for ESC-VT students vs. the number of AAS DMS and DCS students. The ESC-VT Program will need a significant number of additional sites that perform all types of vascular testing to increase their admission number and/or to require all DMS and DCS students complete the ESC-VT. Scheduling of clinical rotations is still complicated but the addition of several OB sites, specifically the ARC sites, has helped ease the scheduling of students to attain the competencies required by CAAHEP accreditation. Scheduling students who are concurrently enrolled in the ESC-VT Program is quite challenging, especially to place students at sites where a variety of exams are performed.