Richie Palma, RDCS, FASE, congratulates Lynsy Edgerton, the 2008 Alan D. Waggoner Sonographer Student Scholarship award recipient.

As a program director of the Hoffman Heart Institute, I’m often asked what makes a successful ultrasound program. The simple answer is having great clinical sites. Although comprehensive didactic ultrasound education is necessary, my program is a success because of my great clinical sites and passionate and dedicated instructors. There is much talk of the future of our profession and the quality of cardiac ultrasound. I truly believe it is our clinical instruction of our students that will preserve the future of the profession. The biggest challenge for all schools is obtaining and retaining good clinical sites. The relationship of the clinical instructor and student is such an important part of the learning process. To give you some insight from a student perspective, I have asked Lynsy Edgerton, the 2008 ASE Alan D. Waggoner Sonographer Student Scholarship award recipient and now clinical instructor at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, to relate her thoughts and experiences.

What was the importance of the clinical learning experience?

My clinical learning experience was a highly valued component of my education and has served as a model for my methods with current students. I was able to approach my clinical instructors with questions that were probably very simple without feeling like I would be looked down upon. It also helped to have clinical instructors who were from my program, as they were once in my shoes. I felt comfortable approaching the doctors because my clinical instructors helped build a bridge to allow me to do so. The ability to have a relationship with the doctors helped me realize the importance of our profession to the cardiologists with whom we work. I also noticed a willingness of our patients to allow me to learn because my clinical instructors were there making me and the patient comfortable. This made the patient become the teacher by telling me what he or she felt was different with my scanning compared to that of my instructors’.

What is the importance of hands-on clinical training?

Having hands-on clinical experience allows for growth in many ways. Hands-on training extends beyond putting the probe on a patient’s chest. It allows the most direct patient-sonographer interaction to come to the frontline of fighting heart disease. The hands-on allows the connection between the patient and the sonographer to occur; this is something students need to develop to be successful. It reinforces that there are people at the end of our probes. It teaches us to see and recognize pathology without letting the patient know, and to continue to make the patient comfortable in a situation that is often nerve-wracking and can be life altering. These experiences can only be learned hands-on in clinical settings, and not in simulation labs or by scanning classmates.

Learning to communicate with your students is another vital part of teaching. As an instructor, you are allowing a student to do a study with your name on it, so you must be able to communicate efficiently and effectively build trust that creates an ideal learning and teaching environment. This ultimately results in the patient getting the best and most effective care in a teaching hospital.

What is the value of instructors caring about students?

If the instructor is in tune with the student, it allows both to grow. Having an open line of communication with the student builds a relationship that mentors a student into a great sonographer.

Exposing students to new experiences and preparing them for what is expected of them when they enter the field is an important job for clinical instructors. I had a student who had no prior healthcare experience before I brought her up the cardiac intensive care unit to do a post-op patient. I explained what it was going to be like and told her to ask questions. She did great. She asked tons of questions and later we talked about her experience. I think she and I built a relationship that allowed her to grow without feeling like she had to hold back due to her lack of healthcare experience.

How has your experience as a student made you want to become a clinical instructor?

As a student I recognized all of the challenges of becoming a cardiac sonographer and know firsthand what it is like to learn the skills needed to become competent sonographer. When I succeeded, my clinical instructors praised me, and the confidence they gave me allowed me to give back to the students with whom I now work. I love seeing the students succeed.

What would you tell a potential clinical site are the benefits of being a training site for a cardiovascular sonography program? Or in other words, why should I take on the additional time and work needed to be a clinical training site?

Having students in the lab is beneficial in many of ways. The sonographers who are training the students need to stay up-to-date on current standards and methods, and it keeps your staff sharp. Also, if you are training students, you want to put your best work out there so that they get the most out of their experience. You are also training potential employees. You teach them how you expect your employees to function. This gives you a pool of new sonographers from which to choose if you are looking for new employees, and you can feel confident that they will become great employees and instructors.

Ultimately, being a clinical instructor gives back to our profession. As a growing and developing technological industry, we need to make sure that our new sonographers are well trained and will continue to help our industry grow. For echocardiography to continue to be a vital tool in cardiovascular care, we want the best and brightest to join our field. If we work with students and see them succeed, then we are successful as an industry.