JRCNMT PROCEEDINGS

Elaine J. Cuklanz

BOARD SELECTS NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The Board of Directors of the Joint Review Committee on Educational Programs in Nuclear Medicine Technology (JRCNMT) has selected Jan Winn, MEd, RT(N), CNMT, as the next executive director of the JRCNMT. Winn joins the JRCNMT staff on September 1, 2006, bringing an extensive background in nuclear medicine technology education, involvement in professional activities, and experience in program accreditation to this position. She was previously employed as an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, where she was involved with the nuclear medicine technology program for the past 17 years, serving as the clinical coordinator for three years and the program director for the last 14 years. During this time Winn has received several awards for excellence in teaching, the latest being the the Outstanding Educator Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine Technologist Section (SNMTS). Winn was the recipient of the Faculty Governance Award in 2002 and the Philip E. Smith Service Award in 1997 from the Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center.

Winn's professional activities include membership in the SNMTS, the American Society of Radiologic Technologists, the Association of Educators in Radiologic Sciences, and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology. She has been actively involved at both the national and local levels of these organizations. Winn has participated in program accreditation activities through the JRCNMT. She has served as a site evaluator since 1995, has been a member of the board since 2000, and has served as the chair since 2004.

The search for the new executive director began in 2005 with the announcement of the upcoming retirement of the current executive director, Elaine J. Cuklanz, MS, MT(ASCP)NM. Since that time the board has carefully planned for the transition of personnel to insure that all responsibilities of the JRCNMT are fulfilled. Winn will assume all program-related responsibilities as of January 1, 2007. Cuklanz will continue as the chief executive officer, handling all the administrative, financial and regulatory responsibilities through December 2007.

MEETINGS

The JRCNMT will hold its fall meeting November 10–11. The (JRCNMT) Board of Directors will review 19 programs seeking continued accreditation and one program seeking initial accreditation. Programs undergoing review are listed below. Written third-party testimony may be submitted regarding any nuclear medicine technology program undergoing review. Persons desiring to present third-party oral testimony must submit a written request. Third-party testimony, written and oral, must be limited to the educational program's compliance with the Essentials and Guidelines for an Accredited Educational Program for the Nuclear Medicine Technologist.

PROGRAMS UNDERGOING REVIEW IN 2006

Delaware Technical and Community College, Wilmington, DE
Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital, Hines, IL
Triton College, River Grove, IL
Salem State College, Salem, MA
University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, MA
William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI
Mayo School of Health Sciences, Rochester, MN
University of Missouri–Columbia, Columbia, MO
St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO
University of Nevada–Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus, OH
Community College of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, PA
Wyoming Valley Health Care System, Wilkes-Barre, PA
Midlands Technical College, Columbia, SC
University of Tennessee Medical Center, Knoxville, TN
Baptist College Of Health Sciences, Memphis, TN
Del Mar College (Initial), Corpus Christi, TX
Galveston College, Galveston, TX
Houston Community College System, Houston, TX
West Virginia University Hospitals, Morgantown, WV

PROPOSED GUIDELINES

Proposed guidelines for Essential I.B. of the Essentials and Guidelines for an Accredited Educational Program for the Nuclear Medicine Technologist were discussed with participants at the annual JRCNMT workshop. The essential, with the salient part underlined, and the proposed guidelines (in italics) are published below. If anyone has comments or questions regarding the guidelines please contact Elaine J. Cuklanz, at 406-883-0003 or jrcnmt{at}centurytel.net.

Essential I. B. JRCNMT Affiliated Institution(s)

A. Uniform Clinical Education

Affiliated institutions shall be located in geographic locations that allow the sponsoring institution to maintain direct supervision, coordination, and continuing communication to ensure that students enrolled receive uniform and adequate instruction and clinical experience. There shall be documented, ongoing communication between the institution and its affiliates for review of the program and its operation.

Proposed Guideline.

Programs could use the master rotation schedule to help with the documentation. This could include a list of the clinical sites where students would receive general nuclear medicine, cardiac, PET, radiopharmacy and/or radiation safety training. The list or chart would clearly identify what clinical education objectives (procedures) could be achieved and how long the students would receive instruction while at each of the different clinical sites.

For programs where the students do not rotate to different clinical education sites, the program could also use a rotation schedule that demonstrates the weeks assigned in each room or area, what clinical education objectives (procedures) the student is expected to perform while in that area, and who would be supervising them during that time.

In addition to the rotation schedule, the program could use a terminal objective checklist that would demonstrate what the student had accomplished throughout their clinical education. The terminal objective checklist could include mandatory objectives that all students would need to complete and elective objectives that students would need to complete a certain portion thereof.

The combination of the rotation schedule and the terminal objectives could be used to document the clinical uniformity for students in an individual program.

B. JRCNMT Advisory Committee

Meetings shall be held at least semiannually, one of which must be in the form of a formal meeting. Whenever an alternative to a formal meeting is employed, the methodology must be fully described and available for review. Meetings conducted by an alternative methodology must document how program goals and operations were reviewed and the interactive nature of the process. Each affiliated institution and the sponsoring institution shall appoint a representative from the nuclear medicine technology faculty to attend such meetings.

Proposed Guideline.

The word “formal” can be used in the sense that there needs to be a meeting of representatives from each affiliated institution. This meeting can be done in the traditional sense where there is a face-to-face meeting or chat room, a threaded discussion, or a telephone conference call. The idea is to have a situation where there can be an immediate or near immediate exchange of ideas. This would satisfy one of the semi-annual meetings.

The word alternate can be used in the sense of sending out or posting an e-mail newsletter, or a series of e-mails, a hard copy newsletter or some type of bulletin that includes all the information that you would normally have discussed in a formal meeting. There would also have to be a mechanism in place for the representatives to reply back to this information. This could be accomplished by the sites mailing or e-mailing comments back to the program. This would allow for the sites to provide input on the information that was distributed. If there was a topic that needed to be voted on by all representatives, then a ballot could be distributed to all sites asking for them to complete the ballot and return it to the program. This could satisfy the other meeting.

Programs could choose to have one meeting in each manner described above or could choose to continue to have face-to-face meetings.