UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
Nuclear Medicine Technology Program

NMT164 Clinical Practicum II (two credits)
Spring 2008

VERSION: January 3, 2008

Course Coordinators: Jennifer Smith & Jillian Turner

Supervising Technologists: Rocel Aguillon, Christy Bowman, Chelsea Bullard, Jesse Guterres, Richard Lew, Steve Relation, Jennifer Smith, Ed Tumielewicz, Jillian Turner, Christin Young.

Clinical Rotation Schedule (.xls)

Daily Clinic Report Form

DESCRIPTION
This two credit hour course requires students to spend 6 hours per week in a supervised clinical experience in the Nuclear Medicine Department at Fletcher Allen Health Care. Students will be assigned to various work areas during the semester, with each rotation lasting 2-3 weeks.

Schedules may be changed due to unforeseen circumstances in the clinic.

Clinic will commence January 22, 2008

There will be NO clinical assignments on the following dates:

week of January 14, 2008

Monday, January 21 (Martin Luther King Day)

Monday, February 18 (President's Holiday)

Tuesday, March 4 (Town Meeting)

Monday thru Friday, March 10 - 14 (Spring Recess)

The last day of clinic is Wednesday, April 30

REQUIRED TEXTBOOK

Shackett, Pete; Nuclear Medicine Technology: Procedures and Quick Reference; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2000; $73.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course, students will:

" Be able to perform various diagnostic nuclear medicine studies under the supervision of a technologist
" Handle radioactive materials safely
" Practice radiation safety techniques
" Have an intermediate understanding of clinical nuclear medicine as it applies in a hospital
" Be able to use a nuclear medicine gamma camera in a clinical setting
" Have an intermediate understanding of nuclear medicine instrumentation and procedures
" Become proficient in compassionate care of patients in a team-oriented healthcare environment
" Continue to build on professional behaviors and attitudes (ie. being on time, taking notes, asking questions, etc.)
" Practice all patient privacy standards according to Fletcher Allen Health Care's compliance of HIPAA laws
" Perform successful venopunctures for administering radiopharmaceuticals.
" Have learned to communicate effectively with technologists and other hospital staff

GOAL
The goal for this course is for students to learn good professional behaviors which will become the foundation for future clinical experiences. Each area has an expected level of performance and each will be graded using the Personal and Professional Growth Evaluation (PPGE) form. Jennifer and Jillian will evaluate the students at the end of each rotation with input coming from the supervising technologists. The completed evaluation will be presented to the student for his/her signature.

In addition, it is the goal of the course that students demonstrate that they are competent in various clinical procedures by being tested (see Imaging competency form and Radiopharmacy competency form - both in PDF format)

Here are the general expectations for professional behavior in the clinic:

A. RELIABILITY; student is expected to:

* arrive before the scheduled clinic time.

* attend all scheduled assignments or makeup missed assignments.

If you will be absent or late for a clinic session, you are required to call Jennifer or Jillian at 847-3670 prior to the scheduled start of your session. If neither are available, leave a message with one of the other technologists.

Hot lab rotation begins at 6:00AM.

There are no excused absences. All missed clinic time must be made up within 2 weeks and before the last day of classes.

You are allowed two absences without penalty as long as proper call-in procedures were followed and the sessions are made up within two weeks. Any additional absences for any reason other than illness will be unexcused and each one will reduce your final clinic grade by one full letter grade.

If more than two sessions are missed due to illness, a doctor's note must be provided. If the absence is not accompanied by a doctor's note the absences will be unexcused and each will reduce your final grade by one full letter grade.

You will be allowed one late arrival without penalty as long as proper call-in procedures are followed. Any additional tardiness will reduce your final grade by two percentage points per violation.

Arrangements to make up missed clinic sessions must be made as soon as possible with Jennifer or Jillian by phone or e-mail.

All makeup sessions will be in the same rotation as missed, if possible.

Failure to make up a missed session in a particular rotation will result in a reduction in the clinic rotation grade by 2 letter grades.

Failure to phone in an absence or to make up a missed session will result in a reduction in the clinical rotation grade by 1 letter grade.

ATTENDANCE PROCEDURES
Proceed to your assigned room and check in with the supervising technologist. Stay with him / her unless you are reassigned to another room.

Check the room patient schedule and note the time the procedures begin. Be in the room at that time.

Ordinarily, you are expected to stay for the entire scheduled session. However, if you are allowed to leave your clinical assignment earlier than scheduled due to "downtime", make a notation on your online clinical report.

* be mentally and physically prepared for the clinic session.
You should get sufficient amount of sleep so as to be energized and ready to function in the clinic.

* notify the supervising technologist before leaving clinic.
If, for some reason, you must leave early, please notify the supervising technologist before signing out.If the time exceeds 15 minutes, you must make up the time.

B. PROFESSIONAL DEMEANOR; the student is expected to:

* adhere to the dress code: click here for dress code policy .
Students are expected to look uniform while assigned to the clinic. This means wearing neat, clean scrubs along with a full-length white lab coat. The dress code also involves wearing the FAHC ID badge as well as the radiation monitor and ring badge. Students are permitted to use a FAHC lab coat and leave it in the department.

If you do not meet the dress code requirements you will be asked to modify your attire or if necessary leave the clinic and make up the missed day.

If you are interested in your monthly radiation exposure readings, you can either call 656-2570 or you can request it from the RSO web page at: www.uvm.edu/~radsafe

* treat patients, technologists, and other health professionals with respect.

Communicate with patients and family in a professional manner. This is extremely important. Most patients want to be treated this way because it portrays you are knowledgable and cautious of what you are doing. It is a way to set your patients minds at ease about their test.

* refrain from conversation that excludes the patient.
The patient must always be the center of focus in the clinic.

* remain calm and keep composure in stressful situations.
Sometimes, things can get hectic in the clinic, especially when an emergency occurs in the department.

C. INTERPERSONAL SKILLS; student is expected to:

* accept constructive criticism from supervising technologist.
You will receive instruction while patient care is occurring. Please do not be offended if you are corrected . You are in the clinic to learn and are allowed to make mistakes. We expect students to learn from making mistakes but students should not be repeating mistakes.

* communicate effectively with patients, their families, supervising technologist, and other members of the health care team.

Converse with patients, their families and the technologists, remembering that the procedure needs to be done efficiently, but we also want the patient to feel comfortable and have his/her questions answered

D. INITIATIVE; student is expected to:

* prepare the room for next patient.
Preparation may include tidying the room and putting new sheets and pillow cases on the patient table.

* volunteer to help in the assigned room.
We expect students to "step-up" and take the initiative to learn, not to observe all the time.

* make constructive use of "downtime" in assigned room.
The room that you have been assigned to will occasionally have some "downtime", that is, reduced work load due to patient numbers or machine maintenance or repair. The student should check with the supervising technologist to arrange a reassignment. If none is available, students should do one of the following:

Practice injections (ONLY with a technologist supervising),

Practice setting up scans for competencies (ONLY with a technologist supervising)

Practice changing collimators (ONLY with a technologist supervising)

Watch the physician read films in the Radiologist's reading room,

Update your Notebook,

Look over the department procedure manuals,

Read Nuclear Medicine journals found in the Nuclear Medicine Department.

E. INTEGRITY; the student is expected to:

* maintain confidentiality of all patient information.
Patients have rights regarding confidentiality of their medical information, therefore, NO information about patients is to leave the Nuclear Medicine Department. This is very serious and any breaches of this policy will not be tolerated and legal action will be taken.

* accept responsibility for his / her actions.
If you are asked by the supervising technologist to do something, please respond promptly to the best of your abilities.

* admit errors.
Everyone, including professionals, makes a mistake once in a while. We expect that will also happen to students. Making a mistake is not as bad as trying to cover up a mistake or shifting the blame. Repetition of mistakes will require additional clinical time to remediate the problem.

F. ADAPTABILITY; the student is expected to:

* respond effectively when interruptions occur in the day-to-day clinical workload.

G. CLINICAL NOTEBOOKS (formerly called log books)
All students are required to keep notes in a small notebook which fits into your lab coat pocket. their clinic notebooks. Students should record the procedures and camera technique used for each type of exam or task performed. The notes will be an excellent resource as you proceed through the program. By reviewing their notes, students can quickly reacquaint themselves with a room and its procedures.

If you have been through a procedure before and your notes are incomplete and you are unable to perform or assist in the procedure, you will be asked to observe only and to clarify your notes.

Notebooks will be reviewed periodically by the supervising technologist. The notebook should be organized in such a way that information can be readily retrieved. A small 2-ring binder notebook has been found to be useful.

Notebooks will count for 10% of your final grade.

CLINICAL REPORTS
Students are required to fill out a web-based form (click here) within 24-hours of the completion of each clinic assignment. This form will be e-mailed to Jennifer Smith, Jillian Turner, and Louis Izzo. It is expected that your report will be detailed enough to provide good documentation of what you have accomplished in your clinic session. This, coupled with the PPGE form, will be helpful to make sure that you are making good progress in the clinic.

Click here to link to the online form.

WRITTEN SUMMARIES
This paper will be due at the end of each month.  You can either attach the report to an e-mail and send to Jennifer or Jillian, or you can hand in a hard copy to either of them. Click here for guidelines.

Monthly Written Report Due Dates:

Report # 1 - Saturday, March 1 by noon.
Report # 2 - Tuesday, April 1 by noon.
Report # 3 - Thursday, May 1 by noon.

CLINICAL COMPETENCIES

Students are expected to complete one clinical competency at the end of each rotation.

When you are ready to attempt a competency, please notify Jennifer or Jillian.

As part of your competency, you must print out the form and hand to the supervising technologist. Failure to do so will reduce your comp grade by 10 points.

You must complete at least 1 successful I.V. setup and at least 4 straight sticks for a total of 5. At least three of the five (including the I.V.) must be done on patients. Injection competency form

If you fail a competency, you must repeat it and your competency grade will be reduced a full letter grade.

Please see the Imaging competency form and the Pharmacy competency form.

GRADING

The student's clinic grade will be determined by the following:

3 Personal and Professional Growth Evaluations (30 %)

5 clinical competencies (40 %)

Notebook (10%)

Daily reports: online clinical reports after each clinic session (5 %)

Monthly reports (15%)

Grade Computation Form (.doc)

GRADE
90-100 "A" - high quality clinical work and excellent progress

80-89 "B" - above average quality clinical work and good progress

70-79 "C" - average quality work and minimal progress

60-69 "D" - minimum quality work and virtually no progress during the first semester.

<60 "F" - poor quality

"+" and "-" will be attached to the letter grade based on the numerical grade computation.

COURSE EVALUATION - Students are expected to submit a written evaluation of the clinic experience at the end of the semester.

FORMS

Venipuncture Log Sheet (MS Word format)

Competency Form - Radiopharmacy (MS Word format)

Competency Form - Imaging (MS Word format)

Personal & Professional Growth Evaluation Form(MS Word)

Grade Computation Form (.doc)

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