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Vascular Sonography

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Clinical Affiliate Partnership Request

A student cannot identify and initiate a clinical affiliation partnership.  Requests to initiate a clinical affiliation partnership is limited to clinical site personnel, program director or program clinical coordinator.

If you are a Lab Supervisor or Lab Manager and are interested in becoming a clinical affiliate of Jackson College DMS Programs and entering into an affiliation agreement, please complete the following two forms and submit them to Heather Ruttkofsky, MA, RVT Vascular Sonography Program Director, by email at sonographyinquires@jccmi.edu on or before the application deadline of January 31.

Please note: New clinical affiliation agreements can take approximately four-six months.

An appropriate clinical, educational site will need to meet the following requirements:

  1. There is an ARDMS (RVT), or CCI (RVS) credentialed vascular sonographer on staff willing to serve as the student’s clinical instructor. This individual should have previous experience in training sonographers and students.
  2. The vascular departments perform a minimum of 1,000 vascular exams per year. There is a dedicated vascular department for vascular exam procedures.
  3. We prefer that the facility can provide a variety of patient care settings in which sonographic procedures are performed on in-patients and outpatients. These settings may include the following: ambulatory care facilities, specialty centers, emergency/trauma, intensive/critical/coronary care, surgery, and angiography/venous ablations.

Clinical Education placement

Jackson College Program Director and Clinical Coordinator in collaboration with current, approved clinical sites, determine which clinical sites are available annually and how many open placements will be for the Jackson College sonography programs. Clinical site placement is based on annual clinical site availability and geographic location, awarded by points (highest-lowest earned). Clinical site placements will not be announced prior to the admission process timeline.

If a student lives within a 2-hour driving radius of another CAAHEP-accredited program, they should apply to the local program.  Visit  www.caahep.org to find programs nearby.  The program directors will provide state locations for clinical sites that agree to become major clinical affiliates (sites agreeable to a regular clinical education site).

Potential students can contact the Allied Health Department Coordinator to learn whether an affiliated clinical site is in their geographical area (city, town) at sonographyinquires@jccmi.edu.  The email will be managed by the Allied Health Department Coordinator.  The sonography program directors will also have access to the email inbox.

Unique program details and processes can be found on the Vascular Sonography program website.

Understanding Mandatory Lab Requirement

All students admitted to the vascular sonography program must complete DMS 160 Introduction to Vascular Technology and Professional Lab Practices prior to the start of clinical. The ground base lab course is at Jackson College’s Central Campus, in Jackson, Michigan. Students must complete the five-week lab course on campus unless the student’s assigned clinical site requests hosting the student for that experience. It should be noted that this is rare, and most clinical affiliates do not request this responsibility. The following circumstances will be considered to determine the eligibility of the hybrid delivery method of the lab requirement:

  1. Clinical Site Request
  2. Review and confirm the clinical site’s ability to facilitate educational needs and experience.
  3. Program Director approval

The following conditions must be met once eligibility status has been approved:

  1. A clinical site willing to sponsor the student must meet the minimum requirements of a clinical affiliate listed below:
  2. A current affiliation agreement
  3. Completed, submitted, and approved CC and CV forms by the clinical instructor
  4. Appropriately credentialed sonographers willing to facilitate the course requirements.
  5. The sponsoring clinical site must be willing to work with students to complete the lab course competencies for the DMS 160 course.
  6. A cleared background check, drug screen and physical health form including immunization forms must be updated in the Allied Health Office one month prior to the start of the course.
  7. Signed Clinical Instructor Acknowledgement (Contact the Program Director for this document)

Please download the Vascular Advising Fact Sheet print a copy, sign the last page, and return it to Student Services.

Due to the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA), we currently cannot offer online courses and/or clinical externships in the following states:  California. If you can only attend a clinical externship (a requirement of all DMS programs) in the state listed above, you cannot complete a degree in any of our DMS program offerings. If you want to relocate to a SARA member state, please get in touch with the Allied Health office at 517.768.7007.