Meeting & Agendas

Dr. Lines called the meeting to order at 11:45 am and welcomed everyone present. Dr. Lines had everyone go around the table and introduce themselves.

The minutes from the November 12, 2010 meeting were passed to each person present. Everyone briefly reviewed the minutes and there were no questions or changes. Mr. Garza explained that with the opening of the Round Rock campus and a couple of retirements, he was unable to have an advisory board meeting in 2011.

Mr. Garza gave a brief overview of the Radiology Program. 2012 will be the first year to have 2 cohorts graduating at the same time. (Round Rock Campus and Eastview Campus students). Round Rock Campus-Graduating Class of 2012 In Round Rock, there were 21 students that enrolled and started on August 23, 2010. Of that original number, the current number of remaining students are 14. In assessing the reasons for the attrition, the following was determined for this cohort: Academic Failure: 4 Personal Choice: 2 Health Reasons: 1 Eastview Campus-Graduating Class of 2012 At Eastview, there were 33 students that enrolled and started on August 23, 2010. Of that original number, the current number of remaining students are 27. In assessing the reasons for the attrition, the following was determined for this cohort to date: Academic Failure 8 Personal Choice 1 Health Reasons: 1 Please note that while the number of lost RAD students for this campus is 10, because there were 4 ''returning'' students from a previous class, this brings the current number up from 23 to 27. Round Rock Campus-1st Year Students The total number of RAD students admitted for this campus was 22. Of these number of students, 9 students were lost by the end of the Fall Semester. In evaluating the reasons for the loss of students, the following was determined: Academic Failure: 8 Personal Choice: 1 Eastview Campus - 1st Year Students The total number of RAD students admitted for this campus was 28 of this number of students, three students have withdrawn or were unsuccessful. In evaluating the reasons for the losses, the following has been determined: Academic Failure 1 Personal Choice: 2

Rudy informed the committee members that the college had previously offered a Cardiovascular-Interventional Radiology Program. It was first offered in 1992. Because of a lack of student interest, the program was de-activated. Recently, it has been noted that many clinical facilities are being pro-active in trying to make sure that the Technologists that are performing Cardiovascular-Interventional Procedures are credentialed by the ARRT in Cardiovascular-Interventional Radiology. The Credential is (CI). Mr. Van Breems has been with the college for approximately a month now and has started the development process. We are working very hard to try and start the program this Fall. Adam has been working on the lectures, program information session, application, and other required documents/publications. Adam Van Breems, a new faculty member, discussed the new Cardiovascular-Interventional Technology Program he is working on. He mentioned that the medical community needs credentialed professional personnel. When Mr. Van Breems started out, cardiologists expected the CVT to not know how to do the job. Mr. Breems wanted to be taught what to do, but no place to learn. he would pick up books and self-educate. Sometimes people are trained on the job, and there were very few schools to attend and be trained. Mr. Van Breems is developing the curriculum for people and teach them how to do the work from the ground up in a Cath lab. There is a vacuum for CIT people, and we want to fill it. Reactivated CIT program this year because there is a real need for these credentials. All cath labs in town were sent letters to let them know we are having this program. Possibly 2 types of people will apply: some are ordinary RT and do the work but haven't been credentialed. People can continue working and have classes at night. Hospitals don't want peple to have to take time off from work. Our classes will be approximately from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm. All information will be on-line. Go to ARRT to see how the people are supposed to show what they have done. Rudy and Adam mentioned the Care Bill (Consistency, Accuracy, Responsibility, and Excellence). H.B. 2104 is designed to insure that any RT is qualified through education to do the things we do. The Care Bill has been introduced in the house and we hope it will be given serious consideration.

Rudy Garza discussed the RADR Program Assessment Plan Outcomes for the Class of 2011. This Report shows the quality of graduates we have. The Assessment Plan report is a very comprehensive document that insures the program has a consistent mechanism for continuous improvement of the program. The Assessment Plan is structured around four major goals that are evaluated by the program. These are: 1. Clinical Competency. 2. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills. 3. Professionalism. 4. Communication Skills In reviewing the outcomes for the class of 2011, the program met or exceeded all the benchmarks established for each of the measurement tools used to evaluate each goal. We achieved all the benchmarks except for the program completion which is the retention for the class of 2011 was 69%. It is noted that the program completion rate of 69% for 2011 was a small improvement as compared to the program completion in 2010 (65%). In evaluating the reasons for the attrition, program faculty are finding that a significant percentage of the admitted students are experiencing significant academic difficulties in areas such as reading comprehension, calculations/math, and critical thinking and problem solving skills. Program faculty do work with the students so that these areas are improved. Part of the problem is that students need to come into the program better prepared academically. We have found that most students take their pre-requisite courses one at a time and are often able to earn an ''A''. However, when they get into the program, taking 3 or 4 classes at a time concurrently often poses a significant challenge to most students. The college recognizes that this is not only an issue with students in the Health Sciences, but also in all areas of the college. To counter this problem, the college has developed a program called the Student Success Initiative. A faculty member from each discipline is appointed as a coach to help students in the programs. In our program, Kristy Baker and myself are part of this Student Sucess Initiative. To help with the academic difficulties that are very common, program faculty are taking the following actions: 1. Program faculty initiate helping students when they are identified as being at risk early in the program. Students benefit from tutorial sessions with faculty on a one to one basis. 2. Students are also referred to the Health Sciences Counselor which can benefit the student greatly in helping the student work on issues that may prevent their success. 3. For the first time in the history of the program, we have hired a tutor (Lindsay Warren, R.T.R.). Ms. Warren works with the students in the lab as well as helping them with radiology subject matter from class. She is a great help and students are doing well after they consult with Lindsay.

Rudy discussed some strategies that are being considered to address the problem with the attrition rate. It is felt that in order to ensure that students are better prepared academically when they enter the program, a pre-entrance test is being considered. The program faculty have considered a couple of different pre-entrance exams and it appears that the best choice at this time is the HOBET Test (Health Occupations Basic Entrance Test). This test is fairly common in the US and there are some programs that already use the HOBET test here at ACC. The inventories that the HOBET test will evaluate will be reading comprehension, math skills, and writing skills. Because of the large number of applicants in the program, the plan is to announce the requirement of this new test beginning no earlier than the Fall of 2013. It has been noted over the past few years that we have a significant number of students for whom English is their second language. This can represent a significant challenge to the students with their communication skills in the classroom as well as clinically. The program faculty met with the Department Chair of the Physical Therapy Assistant program to discuss their use of the HOBET test. After discussing their outcomes with the students in PTA, we are encouraged that using this test will be a good tool to try and help the retention of the students. It has been the experience of the PTA program that the test has helped improve their retention rate. Rudy Garza asked for thoughts from the committee members. There was significant discussion about the admissions process, and in particular the use of interviews to help select students. The Dean of Health Sciences, Eileen Klein, expressed concern that in the academic setting, the use of interviews for admissions purposes could be challenged legally if someone were to feel that they were kept out of a program because of the interview. Some of the committee members indicated that they use the interview process and felt that the college should also do this. Rudy Garza mentioned to the committee that the Radiology program did conduct interviews before about 15 years ago. However, it became a logistical problem when we had to do many interviews as our numbers of applicants increased. Today, we have anywhere from 300 to 400 applicants and it would be very difficult to do any interviews. The committee also discussed the possibility of using essay type questions that applicants could answer. It is felt that this would be a way of seeing what type of response the applicants would have as well as the quality of their writing. Rudy asked if some of the committee members would be interested in helping develop questions for this part of the revised admissions process. Several committee members agreed to serve on this sub-committee to discuss adding essay type questions to the admissions process. The admissions process we use now only considers GPA and a point awarded for accessing and completing the information session that is on line. If someone has applied in two successive years, they are awarded ''re-application'' points and sometimes, students do get in after they are awarded the extra points. Bob Jones mentioned that he felt it was important to make sure that applicants demonstrate compassion to their patients. It is hoped that with any new admissions process, that this somehow be incorporated. There were various other comments concerning admission procedures to a program. Adam Van Breems said they used an essay test in his school and they didn't have any loss of people in his training program. Retention Rate - Does point system do good or bad? How many people had to wait to get in? Tina Leger indicated she did not think a pre-entrance exam is the answer. She believes interviews can provide so much more information. The Dean indicated also that we have the responsibility to make sure we admit people into the program by using a process that is fair and non-discriminatory. The Advisory Committee was asked to vote on using the HOBET Test for the admissions process and the motion passed. The Admissions Process will be discussed at the next committee meeting to see how this has affected the quality of the students enrolled in the program.

Rudy informed the group that the radiography program would like to be more transparent to our communities of interest. We are going to post the assessment plan as well as other program effectiveness measures so that the public is aware of program outcomes. In an effort to improve the clinical education component, we would like to develop an evaluation instrument that clinical officials can complete to give the program feedback about program performance. Rudy Garza asked if there were any volunteers to work with the program to help develop a survey that can be used and done on-line by clinical officials when evaluating the program. The purpose of this new evaluation is to ensure that the program can obtain information from our clinical agencies on how they perceive the program's performance. Missy Bowen, Fred Ramirez, Ray Boring and Wayne Carter volunteered to help with this important project.

Rudy informed the group that the program is required by the JRCERT to make sure that we periodically evaluate our program mission, philosophy and goals. The statements appear to be doing fine and no change is indicated. The committee voted to retain the mission statement and goals as published at this time.

There was no additional business to discuss and the meeting was adjourned at 1:15 pm.