Program Goals and Outcomes

The Wake Tech Medical Sonography program is committed to providing students with a comprehensive education in the field and providing the health care community with competent and professional entry-level sonographers.

The program's goal is to ensure graduates are competent in the cognitive (knowledge), psychomotor (skills) and affective (behavior) learning domains for both the abdominal-extended sonography concentration and the obstetrics and gynecology sonography concentration.

Program performance is reflected through effectiveness data, as defined by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs upon recommendation of the Joint Review Committee on Education in Diagnostic Medical Sonography:

• Program completion rate
  The number of students who completed the program divided by the number who were initially enrolled in that cohort, plus students who re-entered with that cohort
   
• Five-year average job placement rate
  The number of students working in the medical sonography field within 12 months of graduation, averaged over the most recent five-year period
   
• Five-year average credentialing pass rate
  The number of students who pass the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography and/or American Registry of Radiologic Technologists certification examination on the first attempt. This attempt must be made within six months of graduation from the program, and the figures are averaged over the most recent five-year period.

The program also measures its effectiveness through the following outcomes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of skills basic to the profession
  • Use critical-thinking skills during the performance of sonographic exams to provide optimal results
  • Correlate ultrasound images with patient history and clinical findings
  • Demonstrate effective written and verbal communication skills
• Demonstrate competence in skills basic to diagnostic medical sonography
  • Efficiently perform basic abdominal, obstetrical and gynecological ultrasound examination at an acceptable level of competence
  • Provide proper patient care
  • Document complete and accurate findings of sonographic studies
• Demonstrate professionalism
  • Exhibit professional behavior in the clinical setting
  • Demonstrate effective communication to patients and members of the health care team
  • Exhibit professional behavior in the class and lab settings