Meeting & Agendas

Regina Swearingen welcomed the attendees to the meeting. Each attendee introduced themselves and what facility they were associated with; Web-Ex attendees were signing on

Thanks to all attendees for their time and input! Next meeting in Spring of 2020 Meeting adjourned 6:30 p.m.

Thank You to our current Clinical Sites for all their help in educating ACC Sonography students! Review of PPT sent out to Members prior to this meeting.

2017-2019 Completion Ceremony held on August 9, 2019 6 DCVS Graduates; 12 DMVS Graduates 100% DCVS pass rate of ARDMS exams - credentials of RDCS and RVT 92% DMVS pass rate ARDMS exams - credentials of RDMS and RVT 2016-2018 Outcomes posted on Program website Required by CAAHEP & JRC-DMS Retention DCVS: 75% Retention DMVS: 75% (reasons for withdrawal: 10% academic and 90% health/financial/relocation) Job Placement DCVS and DMVS: 100% Credential Success: 100% for DCVS (RDCS, RVT) and DMVS (RDMS, RVT)

o Graduates and Employers: 90% are 4-5 on Likert scale in most categories • Next survey period: January-March, 2020 o Surveys will be sent out using Survey Monkey form and can be sent as paper form as well

• Re-accreditation JRC-DMS Site Visit with one citation for attrition which has been addressed • All Sonography Programs were re-accredited by CAAHEP with next re-accreditation visit in 2024 o Next Self-Study due date will be given by JRC-DMS; most likely December of 2023 • CAAHEP Standards are still in process of updating/revision; implementation date unknown however some significant changes to required Competencies and Learning Concentration designations are expected • Sonography Programs participated in ACC Fest and ACC Health Sciences Open House at EVC • ACC Summer semester is now a 10 semester instead of an 11 week semester effective Summer of 2020 • Health Sciences Retention Coordinator hired effective Fall 2019 • Sonography website has expanded Online Information Session and resumption of Onsite Information Sessions • ACC continues to fine-tune Guided Pathways system for students new to college and Student Services (Advisors and Counselors) o Many changes to Student Services with each campus having a Completion Counselor and a Clinical Counselor; some have a Career Counselor as well • Adjunct Resignation: Jill Roberts, RDMS, RVT • New Adjunct Hires o Andy Isaacks, RDCS, RVT working in DSAE and DSVT Open Labs on Fridays at RRC o Sherri Lynn, RDMS, RVT working in DMSO lecture and clinical courses at EVC and RRC; assisting with Open Labs at EVC on Saturdays • Entire Sonography Programs applicant pool ranked and students placed in either their selected Program or in the Program with seats available o Provided both Programs with students who ranked high in the pool and students who ranked just high enough to be accepted o Admitted 10 students per Program for start in Fall 2019  Clinical site availability impacted enrollment numbers  Difficulty with DCS, DMS, and VT clinical placements • Need 20+ sites for VT since all students take VT courses • Renovation of Round Rock Campus Sonography was completed with move-in at the beginning of the Fall 2019 semester o 4 Hitachi Lisendo 880 units with state-of-the-art capabilities for Cardiac and Vascular imaging o Addition of 3 bays with ergonomic scan beds o 1 additional live scan room, 1 room for Parks Flo-Lab, 1 room for Vimedix cardiac simulator o Addition of 2 faculty offices (Danna and Jessica) o Addition of dedicated Sonography adjacent classroom with barn door type access from classroom to lab o 6 student use computers at central desk location o Capability of projecting scans to a high definition monitor in the lab for group image reviews • Ms. Swearengin attended the ACC Teaching and Learning Excellence Division University Partnership Summit held at the ACC Highland Business Office on Friday, November 1 o Discussions regarding type and availability of baccalaureate “completer” degrees at various Texas universities o Universities noting the need for workforce degree transfer programs o Available for Sonography students Texas State San Marcos and Stephen F Austin Nacogdoches  Bachelor of Arts in Applied Science (BAAS) • Other BS or BA degrees may be a possibility  Interested students would contact the university for evaluation of transcripts  No articulation agreements for Sonography due to lack of BS Sonography degree offerings in Texas universities  Typically at least 30 credit hours must be completed at institution awarding the BS or BA degree

• New PACS for Radiologic Technology and Sonography Programs at EVC and RRC: Cloud based system from VasoHealthIT (VasoCloud) o Sonography students will only view scans on-campus and with instructor supervision and feedback o Faculty will be able to view scans through ACC approved access o IT and VHIT are working through the set-up process o Current PACS is intermittently functional at EVC and has caused the DMS and VT Program faculty delays in evaluation of student scans • State of Texas Program of Study for Sonography still in process; implementation date unknown Retention • The JRC-DMS has changed to a calculation for Retention (70% threshold) instead of Attrition (20% threshold) • Action Plan for Site Visit citation included a plan to count students once fully accepted into a Sonography Program (first semester is “conditional acceptance” o Majority of withdrawals occur in first semester o Student receive “full acceptance” into DCVS or DMVS Program once they have successfully completed the first semester of their Program • JRC-DMS accepted this Action Plan

• Access to clinical sites is limited and present a significant challenge for student placements • ACC cannot send students outside of service area without permission from other colleges • Planning for clinical rotations without assurance that sites will be available impacts students’ abilities to complete required competencies • Revised CAAHEP Standards will clearly state that competencies must be done on clinical site patients only; scans in on-campus clinical will not suffice • Sharing clinical sites with other Programs does impact all ACC Sonography Programs • Some clinical sites only able to accept students on certain days which can conflict with lecture days/times • Some students are attending 3-4 clinical sites during a semester to achieve all required competencies • Not all types of vascular exams are performed in all clinical sites • Limited access for students due to sporadic nature of occurrence and level of student instruction and scanning skills • Hospitals primarily performing procedures inhibits a student’s ability to obtain scanning experience in complete studies/scans • Students not able to scan during the day o Too busy/scans on tight, short schedule/add-ons and work-ins put daily schedules behind o Training new hires o Student skill level: unable to participate during early clinical rotations o Some sonographers not working with students to improve scanning • Inconsistent grading and feedback of student scans (CAAHEP Standards require Clinical Coordinators to be involved in grading student scans in the clinical setting)

• Sonography Lab equipment o Disparity between ultrasound equipment at RRC and EVC affects teaching, learning, practice, and evaluation for VT courses o EVC Toshiba units are out-of-date as compared to clinical equipment capabilities in Medical and Vascular sonography applications o Currently no funding designated for replacement of EVC Toshiba ultrasound units • Full-Time Faculty Hiring o Did not receive funding in 2019-2020 budget for an additional full-time faculty for DMS courses  Limited pool for qualified DMS faculty to teach lecture courses  Limited availability of adjunct faculty for lecture and clinical courses  Seeking Adjunct DMVS Faculty especially for Fridays in Spring semester

Are we serving you well?  What can hinder partnerships between business/industry and ACC? ◦ Amount of practice before clinical rotations; Michael Owen: students unable to recognize contrast images (Janet Barlow: new Hitachi equipment can mimic contrast B-Flow for echocardiograms)  In your opinion, what makes up a quality CTE (career & technical education) program? ◦ Michael Owen: a lot of steps is right to drive attention to detail ◦ Debbie Flores: appropriate prepardness of students for clinical rotations; fostering clinical relationships and keeping those strong ◦ Simulation is good but nothing replaces real patients ◦ Lengthy clinical hours  Are there things we need to differently? ◦ Michael Owen: fine tune campus teaching and evaluations to place a lot of emphasis on fine details  Are the current collaborations and initiatives underway in our region enough to drive CTE programs and career pathways forward? Do we need new or different kinds of collaboration? ◦ Michael Owen: how are clinical sites obtained? Sonography faculty: through networking, contacts from clinical sites being used by other ACC Programs, college out-reach at the upper administration level, graduates alerting Programs to possible new sites ◦ Need sites that have appropriate number and types of scans as well as accepting students on days that line up with semester schedule (the Programs cannot adapt to clinical site days due to concrete teaching schedules)  What can ACC do to better develop students’ employability skills? Consensus of attendees: keep doing what we are doing and stay focused on the fine details of the work…keep emphasis on safe practioner skills, people skills, etc.  Is there anything else that you want us to know? ◦ Debbie Flores: happy with new hires and satisfied with student performance ◦ Tori Veloz: student skill level is appropriate and this is a quality program!