On Friday, Nov. 18th, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in room N201, the Health Sciences and Wellness Institute had a professional development and educational collaboration day, or Clinical Consortium Day, between junior and senior student sonographers in Bellevue College’s Diagnostic Ultrasound program. This event occurs monthly, where juniors and seniors in the program observe and present case studies together.
“We actually kind of model it after teaching hospitals,” said David Goodwin, DUTEC faculty member. “Everyone gets together and they present case studies for everyone to review. Everyone in the entire ultrasound department is here, whether they do hearts, abdomen or vascular.”
Every junior is paired with a senior mentor to present a case study together. Juniors study at BC in classes and labs, whilst the seniors are at their clinical sites. Every month, all students in the DUTEC program gather in N201 to either present their case studies or to observe their peers’ case studies. Every pair is scheduled to present in a certain month.
“Now with the seniors,” Goodwin explained, “they’re all doing their clinical in hospitals so this is the only time they get to meet everyone as a group. This allows all the programs to meet together to discuss case studies and talk about events that are happening in the department of ultrasound.”
The seniors in the program, serving as mentors, spend their final year in the program doing clinicals, which is an opportunity for students to apply their knowledge in hospital settings. Some seniors do their clinicals out of state. At this meeting, three students were from Hawaii, one was from Alaska and a couple were from eastern Washington. “We just remote them in, and they participate just like they were here,” said Goodwin about his students. “We have students literally all over the country. It’s a pretty robust program.”
DUTEC senior Amanda McMallus explained the general concept: “We’re matched with juniors that are from our tract, and we each do our presentation individually. The junior students will show the normal anatomy of the body and the senior will present their case study in pictures or video clips.” McMallus will present in June’s Clinical Consortium Day, to explain her case study on an infant with a cyst in its liver, an uncommon occurrence. “We definitely see some weird stuff in the field for sure.”
“I feel like I’m getting more out of it as a senior because I understand it,” said senior Cali Backlin, who is doing her clinical in Bellingham. “As a junior when you’re just starting to learn it, it doesn’t really make sense. I think it give us an opportunity to get together for those of us who are at clinical sites and compare stories. So it’s not only about the case studies, it’s about sharing experiences that we had and help each other learn.”