Meeting & Agendas

Meeting called to order by Regina Swearengin.

Regina Swearengin welcomed members present at the meeting. Each attendee introduced themselves and their affiliation (place of employment) with the program.

Regina Swearengin thanked the program's clinical sites. The following are the sites: Advanced Imaging, ADC, ARA, Cedar Park Regional MC, Central Texas MC, Metroplex Hospital, Dr. Darby’s office (Renaissance Women’s Center), St. David’s Hospitals, Baylor/Scott & White in Round Rock, Seton Main Hospital, and University MC at Brackenridge

The Advisory Committee was previously informed of changes to the Medical-Vascular Sonography Program (last Advisory Committee Meeting) and via email (recent updates to credit hours and structure of the AAS portion of the Program). Ms. Swearengin reiterated the most recent changes that restored 5 credit hours to the AAS portion. These additional 5 credit hours include HPRS 1206 Med Terms (2 credits) and reinstatement of the 3 credit hour DMSO 1302 Basic Ultrasound Physics and DMSO 1342 Intermediate Ultrasound Physics courses, and reinstatement of the 4 credit hour DMSO 1441. Medical Terminology was added as a co-requisite to the first semester of the Program and SPCH 1318 Interpersonal Communication was moved to the second semester of the Program. The total credit hours contained in the new Medical-Vascular Program format will be increased from 81 to 86 credit hours. Ms. Swearengin also related that the Communication Studies (formerly Speech) Department will have a contextualized version of SPCH 1311 Intro to Speech Communications: Communication for Healthcare Providers offered in the Fall 2016 semester. This course was previously offered as an Honors section but will now be available to all students. A contextualized version for Healthcare Providers will probably be developed for SPCH 1318 as well. There is a move at ACC to developed contextualized versions of certain General Education courses (such as PHIL Ethics with an emphasis on medical ethics). The attendees were complimentary of the addition of these courses. Sonography will be able to guide potential applicants to these courses once they are available in the Course Schedule. The move to include contextualized course sections is part of the Guided Pathways project at ACC.

Guided Pathways: Ms. Swearengin introduced the committee to the Guided Pathways project and handed the floor over to Dean Recek for information on one of the newest ventures of ACC in promoting access to higher education for all. Pat Recek covered the following aspects: •Happening across the country •Books now available about redesigning Community Colleges •Promoting access to higher education is key •Community Colleges are good at getting them (students) in but not getting them graduated •Futures Institute- 100 Faculty and Governing Representatives were divided into groups and sent out to other colleges to ask questions, to learn what is working and what is not, and how they are doing it •When registering for classes here at ACC there are over 186 choices of degrees and certifications •So they have divided them into “areas of study” •Health Sciences is its own area of study consisting of 16 HS Programs •Advisors and counselors will be assigned to 3 “areas of study” and will work closely with Health Sciences to develop an extensive knowledge base of the division (i.e..courses needed, pre/co requisites required, length of programs, types of contact) •Each area of study will have an Area of Study Faculty Coordinator to work with advisors and counselors •These advisors/ counselors will follow the Student through graduation Discussion: Ms. Swearengin and Dean Recek provided additional information on the Guided Pathways system and its implementation for new to college and students with less than 12 credit hours of college students. Eventually transfer students will be included in the process in some way. Ms. Swearengin stated that the hope of the Sonography Programs is that the Guided Pathways system with early interaction with knowledgeable advisors and counselors will help potential applicants with their selection of a program: health science, Sonography, or other. Updates to Sonography website will be coming o Eventually all websites for ACC will be changed to a new format (TBA) o Sonography website will be updated after 2016 Application period closes on June 1, 2016 to reflect changes for 2017 applicants and to streamline process o Ms. Swearengin shared the Guided Pathways Degree Map draft format with the attendees o Changes to Online Information Session to have two parts to the Sonography portion: 1 presentation on the profession and practice of Sonography 1 presentation on ACC Sonography Programs design and application process o Changes to the above presentations to include interactive process and post-test with the goal of reducing time spent on individual advising by Sonography Faculty Currently Ms. Swearengin is advising every potential applicant with transcripts from outside of ACC; these advising sessions take 45 minutes to over 1 hour Retirement of Robin Garza, VT Concentration Coordinator o Still conducting interviews for replacement faculty o New hire may be RDMS, VT or RDCS, RVT o Must be in place for Fall 2016 semester Good News! o Addition of B.B. Imaging for OB/Gyn student placements o Addition of Cornerstone OB/Gyn for student placements o Continued collaboration with St. David’s MFM for student placements in the Fall 2016 semester o A few sites may accept 2 students for a semester as long as the students are not at the site on the same days

State of the Medical-Vascular Sonography Program: Remarks: • Outcomes reporting is mandatory and is reported annually to CAAHEP; now required to be posted on Program website (ACC Sonography under Program Goals and Outcomes tab) 1. Job placement 2. Pass rate 3. Attrition (admit/graduate) • 2014-2015 DMS Graduates = 10 �-� ARDMS results: 100% on AB & OB �-� Attrition: 29% (1student attend orientation but did not attend program due pregnancy; 1 student failed academically in 1st semester; 1 student failed academically in 4th semester • 2015-2016 VT o 11 started ESC-VT (1 returning DMS graduate) with 7 students completing in May 2016  Others took employment and did not complete final semester of ESC-VT Discussion of Action Plans to address Attrition 1. In-depth review of causes of attrition to determine which reasons for student withdrawal were related to reasons other than personal and/or health issues. 2. Early alert conferencing with instructor(s) and referral to HS counselor 3. Program suture changes will spread out instruction over more semesters, especially at beginning of the Program • Front loading Program with didactic and on-campus clinical courses with majority of off-campus clinical conducted in last two semesters • Use of Hybrid (flipped classroom) format for teaching to utilize time in classroom and lab for activities 4. Reduction overlap of junior and senior level courses that utilize the Sonography lab so that didactic courses can include demonstration of techniques and skills 5. Guided Pathways with early and accurate information provided to potential applicants; Degree Map providing succinct and easily understandable Program information and steps 6. Areas of Study advisors and counselors to provide information on Programs including physical abilities requirements/Technical Standards, rigor of Programs, setting realistic expectations, etc. 7. New ranking system requirements include the following • Advising Session with Program Directors (implemented 2 yrs. ago) • TEAS V exam (HOBET V in past) score submission-the exam can only be taken once and must be within 6 months prior to application submission • Prerequisite courses may be repeated for a higher grade only 1 time within 5 years of application date (some applicants taking a single course during a semester and taking it 3-4 times to get an “A” but then have significant difficulty with a full-course load in Program) • Points awarded for completion of Co-requisites and direct patient care experience have decreased There were favorable comments from the attendees. Ms. Swearengin cautioned that it would be at least 2 years before the above Action Plans can be evaluated for effectiveness since the Programs admit only once a year.  Simulator Update • UltraSim simulators are no longer supported by the MedSim company which is no longer in business • One UltraSim is non-functional • The other UltraSim is showing signs of intermittent “glitches’, the same type of problems encountered with the now defunct UltraSim • MedSim UltraSim technology is significantly out-of-date and difficult to use effectively • New simulator product, SonoSim has been purchased with College Wide Technology Committee funds for replacement of the non-functional MedSim; expect delivery in early May with use beginning in Fall of 2016 with junior and senior students Discussion on students obtaining hands-on scanning experiences: Volunteer scheduling and how the Programs handle communication to the volunteer if a finding is noted • All OB volunteers must have written permission from OB care-giver; only healthy adults and normal singleton pregnancies are accepted o Very few OB volunteers as care-givers are reluctant to give permission o No 3D/4D; no pictures given; no video created o Student worksheet with fetal measurement is given o Concerns by several committee members that the Program should not give out an OB worksheet with measurements  Dr. Lines, Ms. Hollins, Ms. Lesmes, and Ms. Flores felt that the Program could be held liable if there was a problem  Ms. Swearengin stated that no volunteers seeking a diagnosis for a complaint or any woman under 20 weeks of gestation who has not had prenatal care is accepted as a volunteer. The Waiver Form states that the volunteer will share any information given during the scan to his/her medical care-giver.  Ms. Swearengin related the standard process for handing findings on volunteer scans and OB (normal) scans. She stated that the Waiver form (shared with committee members) had been approved by ACC Legal counsel several years ago and that the process of giving a volunteer a note with sonographic descriptions of a finding or an OB worksheet had been approved by ACC Risk Management. Significant discussion on the procedure when findings are encountered and for normal OB scans was held. The committee asked Ms. Swearengin to have ACC Legal counsel review the Waiver form and procedures. Ms. Swearengin will work with Dean Recek to have the form and procedures reviewed.

Open Discussion Opportunities • Donations of case studies/images from clinical sites as Program is looking to replace current interesting case files of X-Ray film images o The Programs can accept de-identified images and cases (prefer full scans of images) BUT only ACC Sonography faculty can retrieve images and/or cases from sites…Students are prohibited by ACC HIPAA rules from removing any patient information/data from the site even if it is de-identified o The site can contact the Program for assistance if images and/or cases are donated • Reactivation of local Sonography society • Creating a pool of guest speakers • Collaboration with clinical partners and/or vendors for education sessions • Possible future evening and/or weekend optional clinical rotations for students o SAMC is ok with that; Ms. Flores said she would check into that at Seton facilities o Student members felt that would be a good idea • Potential for interaction between Dell Medical School at UT and ACC Sonography • Seton MFM opportunities o Mr. Lindsley will obtain Ms. Sullivan’s phone number so the Program can contact her regarding student placements

Discussion of clinical issues (student member thanked for their attendance and released from the meeting)  Challenges of Clinical Placements Too busy Not busy enough Learning new equipment and transfer to database/ new computer system Dr.’s don’t want students to slow down the Sonographers (i.e. no work-in availability) ACC cannot send students to sites outside of ACC service area without permission from colleges in those service areas; difficulties in management of distant sites Students not able to scan during the Clinical rotation day because: Too busy/heavy caseloads/productivity affected Training new hires Some sites have not allowed students to scan at all (discontinued use of those sites) Not all sites perform all types of sonograms and vascular studies Sites utilize “temp” or “float” sonographers which disrupts the continuity of education for students, especially first rotation students All required Competencies (CAAHEP Standards) must have evaluations done in the off- campus clinical setting (Challenges can be done on-campus but cannot be counted as meeting the Competencies in the Standards  Student Issues • Primarily lack of student assertiveness in obtaining scanning opportunities has occurred; students afraid to speak up and offend CIs and sonographers • Some issues with harsh criticism of student performance especially for first year students; need to continue to remind CIs and sonographers of student level and expectations for each semester • Some issues with professionalism of sonographers affecting students  Ms. Lesmes noted that lack of student professionalism in students from another program caused B.B. Imaging to discontinue accepting students some years ago but that recent interactions with ACC Sonography students allowed B.B. Imaging to accept students again (only from ACC)

Ms. Swearengin thanked the committee members for their attendance and valuable feedback and suggestions for the Programs. Meeting Adjourned