4/9/2020

Senior Class of 2020, Radiography Program, Pima Medical Institute

4400 Cutler Ave NE, Albuquerque

Albuquerque, NM 87110

 

American Registry of Radiologic Technologists

1255 Northland Drive

St. Paul, MN 55120-1155

 

Dear American Registry of Radiologic Technologists,

           

This letter is from the senior radiography class of 2020 at Pima Medical Institute’s Radiography Program in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We are writing this as a plea for your help (our class is submitting this letter independently of Pima—they have no input or knowledge of this). Our class was scheduled to graduate on 04/24/2020. Due to COVID-19, our program completion is on an indefinite hold, based on “incomplete” clinical hours. Pima’s program syllabus indicates that 492 hours of externship are assigned each clinical semester, totaling 1,968 hours for the entire clinical portion of the program. At the beginning of the program, our clinical director advised students when the program started in May of 2018 that only 462 hours per rotation were actually required to pass the course—the excess 30 hours per clinical semester were a “buffer” in the event that a student had to miss a day or two of externship. This brings the “true” total required clinical hours to 1,848 (before COVID-19).

 

The order to suspend clinical externship indefinitely came on 03/23/2020 from the New Mexico State Governor, 12 days into our last eight-week rotation. Subsequently, Pima faculty advised senior students that new national minimum required clinical hours were dropped to 75 percent of the total required clinical hours. Our dilemma: 75 percent of our clinical hours is not calculated based on 462 semester hours (1,848 total hours) we were told we needed to complete the program at the start of our program; rather, the “extra buffer” hours totaling 1,968 hours. As our entire senior class sees it, at the new 75-percent clinical-hours requirement, our position is that Pima’s “true” clinical hours 1,386 hours), every senior student in our class has either reached or surpassed those required hours (additionally, our class has completed all clinical competencies required for the program).

 

To put this into a “boots on the ground” perspective, the other primary radiography program in Albuquerque is Central New Mexico Community College (CNM). CNM’s Radiography Program requires 1,260 total clinical hours (only 64 percent of the hours Pima requires). CNM pulled their students two weeks before Pima. Our understanding is that CNM lacks 40–60 hours for their program’s full hours (their total completed hours at this point is at most 1,220 hours). Effectively, the more clinical hours a radiography program requires, the more they are penalized by this 75-percent rule. Even though Pima has at least 12-percent more completed clinical hours that CNM, we can’t graduate and get back into the fight?

 

 

According to the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology’s (JRCERT’s) programmatic accreditation, they support of program completion during this unusual time. JRCERT’s official website (www.jrcert.org on 03/19/2020 stated in a COVID-19 communication update that “Permitting senior students who have completed all graduation requirements (i.e.: didactic course work and/or clinical competencies regardless of program’s required clinical hours) be allowed early release”. During our last few weeks in our clinical rotations, many of us have seen indecision, a lack of leadership, and a “wait and see” approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. This attitude is doing the medical community no favors, and even less so for our COVID-19 patients.

 

Many of our healthcare providers are desperate for help—the most important resource in the medical field is its employees. My fellow senior students and I want to help. Even if our ARRT Registry exam is pushed back, we would still able to work under the New Mexico state-issued license when we graduate; however, this can only be done when Pima Medical Institute is able to indicate completion of the Radiology Program’s clinical requirements. Enclosed with this correspondence are the class’s electronic signatures from every student within our graduating class. Stevie Bustamante is the primary author of this letter and the class’s point of contact. Your time and consideration in this matter is greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Senior Class of 2020, Radiography Program, Pima Medical Institute

4400 Cutler Ave NE, Albuquerque

Albuquerque, NM 87110

ebustamante6825@my.pmi.edu