SNMTS Program Director Survey

Survey Respondents

A total of 123 nuclear medicine technology program directors were sent a link to the survey. This group included 117 programs based in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and 6 programs from Canada. Fifty-four of the surveyed program directors submitted responses providing a high response rate of 44%. Thirty-nine of 54 respondents represented programs accredited by the Joint Review Committee on Educational Programs in Nuclear Medicine Technology. Participants were from a variety of sponsoring institutions (Fig. 1).

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FIGURE 1.

Survey respondents by sponsoring institution types.

Nuclear medicine technology programs traditionally offer several different types of awards at the completion of the educational training: 35 of the 54 programs responding to the survey have certificate-of-completion terminal awards; 21 award a bachelor’s degree (or at least offer that option to qualified candidates); and 14 offer associate’s degree awards (Table 1).

The majority (85%) of the programs have only 1 class graduating per year. The other 15% have multiple graduating classes per year (Table 2). The length of the professional component varied across programs, but the majority, 48%, reported a program length of 12 months (Table 3). May and August are the most common graduation months with 37% of the programs graduating students in August and 26% graduating students in May (Fig. 2). Employers may want to consider this pattern when looking to fill technologist positions.

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FIGURE 2.

The majority of programs graduated classes in May and August, although graduates are available throughout the year.

Faculty

Table 4 displays data describing the human resources currently being used to operate a NMT program. It may come as no surprise that adjunct clinical faculty represent the largest group of educators in most NMT programs. Based on the data collected, most programs have a very limited number of full-time didactic faculty members.

Program Capacity

Data collected to better understand the demographics of applicants and their respective qualifications show a large variance in the capacity of programs, ranging from a low of 2 students to a high of 70 (Table 5). Program directors felt that there was a larger and better-qualified pool of applicants this past year when compared with the previous academic year. Sixty-six percent of the programs were at capacity (Fig. 3), and 57% reported an increase in the number of qualified applicants (Fig. 4). This is generally seen as a positive trend considering the recent workforce shortages. The mean number of unfilled positions was 3 per program. The mean overall attrition rate (the percentage of students who started the program but did not complete graduation requirements) was 5%. Forty percent of programs saw one or more students drop from their program.

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FIGURE 3.

Two-thirds of respondents reported that their program was filled to capacity.

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FIGURE 4.

Program directors were asked to compare the number of qualified applicants they received for the most recent academic year vs. the previous academic year.

Age, Gender, and Diversity Demographics

Program directors reported that 60% of their graduates last year were female. The mean age for NMT graduates is 29. The youngest graduate was reported to be 19 and the oldest was 56. The mean age for males was 4 years higher than for females (Table 6). Seventy-eight percent of the graduates were white. African-American graduates made up the next largest group at 9%. This information, shown in Table 7, provides support for a continued interest and investment in increasing minority enrollment into NMTPs.

Graduate Employment and Wages

Last year was an excellent year for graduate employment opportunities. The survey’s employment and wage findings are based on the job placement statistic of 598 program graduates. Seventy-four percent of them had committed to a job before their graduation; 15% had found NMT employment within 1 month after their graduation date; and 7% had found employment after 1 month, but within 3 months postgraduation. A small number (3%) of graduates did not secure NMT positions for a variety of reasons. Some reportedly went on to medical school, graduate school, or stayed to complete an undergraduate degree. Others decided to work in another radiology or health care discipline.

It appears that the greatest opportunity for entry-level employment is still in the hospital setting. Seventy-one percent of the graduates accepted jobs in hospitals; 13% accepted jobs in stand-alone clinics; and 2% accepted jobs with mobile imaging services. Only 1% accepted jobs in temporary agencies. A few graduates went directly into specialized positions in nuclear cardiology (9%) and PET or PET/CT (4%). Only 3% of last year’s graduates took part-time positions.

Wages continue to stay competitive. The highest reported starting wage was $36.00 per hour. The lowest was $16.00 per hour. The mean was $23.75 per hour while the median was $24.00, and the mode was $25.00 per hour. Program directors were asked to report whether or not their graduates received a sign-on bonus. Sixty-three percent of those who answered that item reported that their students did receive sign-on bonuses. The highest sign-on bonus was $8,000, and the lowest was $2,000. Sign-on bonuses had a mean value of $4,361, a median of $5,000, and a mode of $5,000 (Table 8).

In order to gain a better understanding of the state of the current job market, program directors were asked about their subjective feeling on the subject. Ninety percent felt the employment outlook for new graduates was good to outstanding. Only 4% reported it to be very poor or abysmal. However, they also felt that the number of job opportuniies available might be leveling off somewhat. While 52% reported that they thought the job outlook was about the same as the prior year, no one felt it was better. Thirty-three percent considered it somewhat worse, and 10% considered the market to be significantly worse.

Program Director Demographics and Opinions

Fifty-four percent of the program directors responding to the survey were female and 46% were male. The highest reported age was 61 and the lowest was 28. The mean age reported was 47 (median = 48, mode = 50). A majority of the respondents were above 40 and held a master’s degree (Tables 9 and 10). Sixty-one percent said they have 12-month appointments while 10% have 9-month appointments. Twenty-one percent of the PDs reported that they hold part-time faculty appointments (<40 h/wk).

The survey also examined the level of experience of current PDs. The mean number of years respondents said they were employed as program directors at their current institution was 11 (median = 11). The longest number of years reported in the position was 35 and the shortest was 1. The mean number of years employed as a staff nuclear medicine technologist before taking a PD position was 9 (median = 7).

Annual salary statistics for PDs can be found in Table 11. The mean salary was $64,951, with a median of $63,000 and a mode of $60,000. The highest reported salary was $90,000, and the lowest was $49,824. Program directors with master’s degree earned, on average, $4,000 more per year than those with only a baccalaureate degree (means of $65,894 and $62,033 respectively). Only 2 program directors reported having doctorate degrees and neither salary was above the average for those with master’s degrees. Male program directors reported salaries approximately $1,500 per year higher than female directors (means of $64,919 and $63,496 respectively). Annual salary figures categorized by number of years employed in current position are shown in Table 12. Those directors who have been in their positions for 11–15 years are earning, on average, the highest salaries (mean = $69,571).

SNM Membership

The majority of PDs responding are members of the SNM (92%, or 48 individuals). Thirty-seven percent reported that they attend the SNM annual meeting each year; 19% reported that they attend more often than not; and 19% reported that they attended sometimes. Twenty-five percent stated that they rarely or never attend the SNM annual meeting. Seventeen percent of the program directors reported having students attend the national meeting nearly every year while 2% said “more often than not.” Fifteen percent had students that attended sometimes. The majority (65%) reported students attending rarely or never. Ninety-four percent of the program directors reported that their students take advantage of the free trial SNM/SNMTS student membership. The survey inquired whether the program directors recommended that their students join the SNM/SNMTS. All of the programs either recommended or required students to join the SNM. Fifteen percent required them to join; 85% recommended students join.

The survey also questioned the availability of financial support for attendance at the SNM annual meeting. Thirty-three percent of the directors reported that their institution paid all their expenses; 23% said a portion of their expenses were paid for by their institution; 23% stated that some funding was provided if available; and 21% said that no institutional funding was available for them to attend the national meeting. A large majority (83%) reported no financial support for sending students to the annual meeting. These findings suggest that, if it is desirable to have program directors and students attend the annual meeting each year, additional sources of funding should be considered.