Program Description

Embark on a new career and help make a difference.

Through academic and clinical training, students are prepared for a career in Diagnostic Medical Sonography that provides patient care while utilizing diagnostic ultrasound equipment. Students will use knowledge gained in this program, experience close patient contact, and utilize diagnostic ultrasound equipment to provide physicians with images necessary to diagnose conditions and diseases. Sonographers are able to: apply knowledge of anatomy and physiology, as well as pathophysiology to accurately demonstrate anatomical structures on a sonogram or digital medium; apply principles of sonographic physics to assess anatomical structures; recognize sonography's role in the healthcare environment; and provide patient care and comfort. Students are eligible to take the registry certification following acceptance of their application by the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS). The mission of the Diagnostic Medical Sonogrpahy program is to provide didactic and clinical education that enables qualified students to achieve strong communication, critical thinking and technical skills required to obtain entry-level employment and become a Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer.

Essential Functions

Communication skills:

• Communicate in English utilizing accurate and appropriate terminology in verbal and written form with patients, families, and members of the healthcare team.
• Correctly identify patients and accurately provide patient education.
• Utilize electronic equipment and medical record software with or without reasonable accommodations.

Observation skills:

• Distinguish blood flow characteristics represented in color on the equipment monitor   Observe variations in skin color, integrity, palpate vascular pulsations, and auscultate blood pressure. Respond appropriately to activation/warning signals on equipment.

Motor skills:

• Apply fine and gross motor skills sufficient to operate equipment and obtain quality images and flow patterns.
• Maintain prolonged arm and body positions necessary to obtain quality visual images.
• Must assist with and/or transfer, lift, move, position, and manipulate the patient with or without assistance.
• Move heavy equipment on wheels and transport patients in wheelchairs and on stretchers.

Cognitive skills:

• Show integration of diagnostic ultrasound images, laboratory results, patient history and medical records.
• Demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills necessary to evaluate, synthesize and communicate diagnostic information to the attending physician.

Behavioral and Professional skills:

• Demonstrate critical thinking skills necessary to recognize and correct performance deviations in diagnostic imaging.
• Demonstrate ability to perform in a clinical setting that requires prioritization, organization and time-management to deliver timely and accurate patient care.
• Demonstrate appropriate professional and procedural judgment decisions under stressful and/or emergency conditions (i.e. unstable patient condition, patient in an altered mental state), emergent demands (i.e. stat test orders), and a distracting environment (i.e., high noise levels, complex visual stimuli).

Program Status: Limited Enrollment