THE FOLLOWING IS A DANVILLE AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE RELEASE
DANVILLE — The Danville Area Community College Sonography program is thrilled to announce the addition of a Kyoto Fetus Ultrasound Examination Phantom “Space Fan-ST.” The new Phantom was purchased following a generous donation from Iroquois Federal Foundation, Inc., funding the majority of the fees with the balance being supported by the Pete and Doris Clapp Education Fund. The fetal phantom will provide the exposure needed to prepare for one of the hardest ultrasound modalities to learn as a student. Previously, students have relied on community volunteers for OB scanning; which the program continues to welcome and encourage.
If you are interested in volunteering as an OB patient for the students of the DACC DMS program, please contact Sonography Instructor, Rachael Arnholt at r.arnholt@dacc.edu.
The Fetal Phantom features an oval-shaped abdomen, which can be set into four different fetal positions. The fetus includes a full fetal skeletal system and all key organs, including brain anatomy, heart anatomy, major vessels, and major abdominal organs. The addition of this Phantom will provide the students of the DACC Diagnostic Medical Sonography Program with a life-like simulation of what scanning a fetus is like, aiding in fetal anatomy recognition, and scanning dexterity. It will provide the sonography students with more experience to better prepare them for the clinical OB setting.
The DACC Sonography and Echocardiography programs will now have a total of 4 ultrasound systems, plus the Fetal Phantom, to use in the scanning laboratory for preparing the students to enter the clinical atmosphere. These machines will allow each program to utilize 3 machines during instructor-supervised scanning sessions which will significantly increase the amount of hands-on time each student is allotted. The systems used by the programs are Philips Elite, Philips 7G XMatrix, GE Vivid E9, and Toshiba Xario XG. The scanning laboratories are equipped to allow students to practice performance of examinations in adult echocardiography, abdominal, small parts, obstetrics, gynecology, and vascular sonography.
Sonography, also called ultrasonography, is the use of sound waves to generate images for the assessment and diagnosis of various medical conditions. These detailed images provide views into the inner workings of the body. Echocardiography is the use of sound waves to generate images for the assessment and diagnosis of various heart conditions.
Graduates with the DACC Sono certificate are immediately employed as staff sonographers primarily in hospitals, clinics, imaging centers and physician’s offices. Sonographers can also be considered for additional training in specialty areas such as vascular and echocardiography. The median salary for sonographers is $71,000.
Graduates with the DACC Echo certificate are immediately employed as echocardiographers primarily in hospitals, clinics, imaging centers and physician’s offices. Career opportunities also exist in administration, education, sales and marketing and applications training for echocardiographers with more advanced degrees. The median salary for echocardiographers is $68,750 – $76,000.
The two ultrasound programs are one-year advanced certificate, selective admission programs that accept 10 students each. Admission criteria, program details, and the application can be found at https://dacc.edu/depts/medicalimaging.
To be considered for the Sonography program students must possess either a degree or certificate and be licensed/registered in Radiologic Sciences, or a Registered Nursing degree and license, or another health profession degree and license/registration, or any bachelor’s or advanced degree. To be considered for the Echocardiography program students must possess any of the above or a degree or certificate and license/registration in Diagnostic Medical Sonography.
The Echo and Sono application deadlines have been extended through the summer, with new classes starting in August. To learn more, contact Tammy Howard at 217-443-8552 or email t.howard@dacc.edu.
