Meeting & Agendas

Due to a scheduling conflict, Manuel Ziegler was unable to attend the meeting. The meeting was called to order by R. Swearengin. 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.

Meeting is adjourned.

The committee members approved the November 2007 meeting minutes as recorded.

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 50 DMS and DCS this semester (12 DMS seniors, 9 DCS seniors, 17 DMS juniors, 12 DCS juniors) ESC-VT – 4 DMS and 6 DCS senior student concurrently enrolled; 2 returning graduates (1 DMS, 1 DCS) enrolled As of this date, 20 of 21 DMS and DCS senior students have taken the ARDMS SPI exam with 19 of 20 passing on the first attempt The Sonography Lab received new equipment at the beginning of the fall semester this year: 4 Toshiba Xario XG shared platform units with 3-D, DVD recording, and multiple transducers (2 linear arrays, 2 cardiac sectors, 1 curved linear, CW Doppler) 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: The ACC Sonography Programs have adopted the Sonography National Education Curriculum (www.jrcdms.org) and continue to utilize the ARDMS Exam Content Outline (www.ardms.org) as the basis for instruction for all Sonography courses and for curriculum development General Information: Three iClicker (audience response system) sets have been purchased and are in use in Sonography courses 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: All ACC DMS and DCS students will take the SPI within the program which will speed up the process for taking their specialty exams after graduation; taking the SPI exam will be incorporated into a Special Topics course in the spring semester of the programs Sonography will have a four bay lab with all equipment (Toshiba units, MedSim, physiologic testing unit, student use computers) identical to the EVC (current) Sonography Lab; the purchasing process for the Toshiba units for RRC was completed at the time when the first four units were ordered The DCS Program will be based at the RRC with students assigned to current clinical sites; all courses that students need to complete their AAS DCS degree plan will be offered at RRC Open labs for all Sonography students will be conducted on both campuses utilizing a sign-up schedule Addition of a secure PACS system will allow Sonography faculty and students to access recorded images/studies at either campus; Sonography will be utilizing the Radiology Program PACS

Sonography will have a four bay lab with all equipment (Toshiba units, MedSim, physiologic testing unit, student use computers) identical to the EVC (current) Sonography Lab; the purchasing process for the Toshiba units for RRC was completed at the time when the first four units were ordered The DCS Program will be based at the RRC with students assigned to current clinical sites; all courses that students need to complete their AAS DCS degree plan will be offered at RRC Open labs for all Sonography students will be conducted on both campuses utilizing a sign-up schedule Addition of a secure PACS system will allow Sonography faculty and students to access recorded images/studies at either campus; Sonography will be utilizing the Radiology Program PACS

The 2009 Annual Report was reviewed by the members; reception of the report was received from the JRC-DMS with no requests for additional information or clarification of data from the original report. Ms. Swearengin explained certain areas of the report, specifically the attrition rates, employment rates, and the pass rates for ARDMS exams. She also explained that some the criteria could not be evaluated due to the completion of the ESC-VT being after the report is submitted. As of this date, all ACC Sonography Programs have a 100% pass rate for all JRC-DMS exams attempted by the graduating DMS and DCS classes of 2008 and the graduating ESC-VT class of 2009. The returned 2008 Graduate and Employer Surveys were reviewed in conjunction with the 2009 Annual Report review. It was noted that the majority of criteria on both surveys were ranked 3 or 4 of 5 on the Lickert scale. Committee members noted comments were positive regarding the level of education and preparation received by the Graduates and evaluated by their employers. Also noted were negative comments regarding lack of certain skills preparation (stress echo, fetal heart) and comments regarding the amount of scan time in the lab and clinical settings. Ms. Swearengin reported that these comments were considered during the development of the curriculum revisions that are before the committee this evening. Also, the lack of training in some skills mentioned by some survey respondents are considered advanced skills which are discussed during the program but which require additional clinical experience to attain. Discussion of the attrition rates brought up issues that affect students that are not under the control of the Programs (such as health/injury issues that prevent the student from continuing in a Program, personal/family issues with negative impact on student success, & students deselecting Sonography as a career), issues of preparation for Sonography courses (academic failure in the first and second semester courses), and issues that are controllable by the Program (the amount of assistance provided by the program and the college such as tutoring, open labs, office hours, & innovative teaching techniques) Student Retention Action: The Sonography Programs have reviewed the pre-requisite courses and application process; changes to the curricula and the application process which are designed to improve student retention are presented to this committee and the ACC Curriculum Committee for approval. Students will be referred to the Health Sciences and/or other ACC counselors for assistance earlier in the semester (following grades more closely), and review of textbooks selected for courses Discussion of graduate job placements included: lots of grads looking for jobs/? too many grads, decreasing salaries (impact of decreased reimbursal for studies), issues of training/orienting new grads in the very short time frames allowed, abilities of new grads, work ethic and previous life experience of grads impacts getting new hires up-to-speed; Sonography faculty mentioned that some grads have not found employment due to visa issues Job Placement Rate Action: The Sonography Programs will continue to apprise grads of job announcements and post printed announcements on bulletin board in lab, will encourage grads to take PRN and PT jobs rather than wait for “perfect” job, encourage grads to look at jobs outside the greater Austin area, ensure alien applicants and students are aware of the restrictions for employment based on the type of visa held.

Ms. Swearengin referred the members to the handouts on the curriculum changes. In summary, the changes include: Change to HPRS 1106 Medical Terminology (1 credit) from HPRS 1206 Medical Terminology (2 credits) due to the state of Texas limitation of 72 credit hours for AAS degree Change from PHYS 1405 or 1407 Conceptual Physics I or II to PHYS 1401 General College Physics; PHYS 1401 meets the CAAHEP Standards and is the algebra-based physics that our students need to prepare for their Ultrasound physics courses; PHYS 1401 moved to pre-requisite but grade will not be part of GPA calculation for admission – applicants must pass this course with a grade of “C” or better Addition of BIOL 2305/2105 Human Physiology lecture/lab to first semester of program Moved DMSO 1302 Basic Ultrasound Physics to first semester of curricula and included 1 hour of lab Replaced DMSO 1342 and DMSO 2351 with DSAE 1318 Sonographic Instrumentation in second semester; also has 1 hour lab Addition of DMSO 1191 Special Topics to third semester; course includes SPI exam preparation Changed DMSO and DSAE 1461 Clinical II courses to DMSO and DSAE 2461 Clinical II to better reflect clinical skill stage in the Programs Changed DMSO 2345 Adv. Sonography Practices to DMSO 2357 Adv. Ultrasound Professionalism and Registry Review (new WECM course that better reflects content taught in this course) Changed DSAE 2335 Adv. Echocardiography to DSAE 2355 Echocardiography Professionalism and Registry Review (new WECM course that better reflects content taught in this course) Re-order non-Sonography co-requisites within degree plan One course removed: Intro to Diagnostic Imaging; content will be merged into existing courses All of the above changes/revisions were implemented due to review of Graduate and Employer Surveys, review of JRC-DMS Annual Report data, changes to CAAHEP Standards and Guidelines for the Accreditation of Educational Programs in Diagnostic Medical Sonography 2007, review by faculty of student progress and retention and recent WECM course additions Faculty related general issues of students having difficulty with basic math concepts and application of formulas. The two 2009 students in attendance answered questions and related their experiences in their ultrasound physics courses. Also, human physiology has been taught within DMSO 1351 Sonographic Sectional Anatomy but has not proved to be adequate for the students in future semesters. Both General College Physics and Human Physiology require the student to use critical thinking skills and will better prepare Sonography students for future coursework.

The faculty and members discussed the number of jobs available for graduates vs. program enrollment. Dr. Klein presented the College’s position in that a minimum number of students are needed to offer a program and the courses within that program. Questions regarding the preparedness of graduates and the definition of “entry level” were discussed. Ms. Swearengin and the Sonography faculty related that the Sonography Lab was utilized as much as possible due to the restrictions on hands-on scan time at most clinical sites (exams must be completed in a timely fashion and cases loads may be heavy at times). All scanning evaluations during the first, second and third semesters are completed in the Sonography Lab on volunteers, with only some evaluations to be completed by the on-site sonographers in the final semester. However, some students still do not take advantage of scanning opportunities at the clinical sites due to the pressure of time and the difficulty of the patients. 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. Some discussion occurred 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 only way all AAS degree plan students could enroll in the ESC-VT program would be to reduce the number of students admitted to the AAS degree plan programs. This would not be supported by the College (Dean Klein and Ms. Swearengin) and not all AAS degree plan students would want to enroll in the ESC-VT (Mr. Torres and Ms. Baker) due to the additional costs incurred with more courses, etc. Other areas that may be a challenge for the Sonography Programs include need for additional adjunct faculty to assist with labs. These faculty members must have at least an AAS in Sonography to work as adjuncts; hourly money may be available. Also, Sonography Labs are conducted during the day which keeps some sonographers from applying for adjunct positions. Some increase in tutoring has been noted; some senior students have been willing to work with junior students. Clinical visits can be difficult to accomplish due to faculty lecture schedules and scheduling students in clinical sites continues to be challenging for a variety of reasons. Ensuring that the students follow good ergonomic practices can still be an issue in some sites as not all clinical sites have ergonomic tables, chairs and equipment, and hospital department perform many exams beside.

Curriculum Decisions: Approval of proposed AAS degree plan changes effective fall of 2010 Kelly Mank moved to approve the proposed curriculum changes with a second by Kevin DeWeese. All members voted “aye” and the curriculum changes were approved.

The DMS and DCS specialty areas with ESC-VT participating in both areas held general discussions about student progress, evaluation forms used by the Programs, scheduling of clinical sites, and use of the Sonography Lab. The DMS group also discussed the need for provision of patient history/information to the radiologist and the recognition of findings that should be reported as urgent to the radiologist. The DCS group also discussed ASE measurement criteria for complete echo and student’s practicing stress echo. Vascular topics included following lab accreditation standards for exam protocols and measurements.