Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute’s Radiography Program has been awarded an eight-year accreditation rating from the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology (JRCERT), the highest award given by the agency.
Seeking national accreditation is a voluntary process that administrators at CCC&TI have chosen to complete in order to enhance quality and safety of the program and promote excellence in patient care among graduates. Over the course of a three year process, JRCERT requires that programs meet nine standards and 66 objectives ranging from student outcomes, faculty qualifications, resources and services to students, to radiation safety and fiscal responsibility of the program.
"CCC&TI is fully committed to both institutional and programmatic accreditation. Accreditation promotes excellence in education by providing guidelines to assure that programs maintain high standards and by monitoring program performance measures such as retention, exam pass rates and employment rates,” said Barbara Harris, Health Sciences Department Chair at CCC&TI. “Graduates of accredited programs can be assured that they will be provided with the knowledge, skills and professional values required for success in their chosen field. The Radiography program at CCC&TI has a long history of providing a quality educational experience for its students. We have been able to upgrade the equipment for our imaging programs in the past few years, including providing two fully energized x-ray labs for instruction."
Radiography Program Director Amber Edwards agrees with Harris and says that the program and its graduates have a bright future ahead. “This accreditation award is a great benefit to our students as it guarantees that graduates will be eligible for licensure and employment as radiographers in all 50 states,” said Edwards. “And as for the program, I could not be happier. The 8-year accreditation is the maximum award that any program can earn. It really is the highest standard that all radiography programs strive for and is proof of all of the hard work that has been taking place here. The future of CCC&TI’s Radiography program is incredibly bright and exciting!”
In addition to the benefits of training through an accredited program, CCC&TI radiography students are also getting the benefits of a newly acquired “lab partner” in the form of an imaging phantom. An imaging phantom is specially designed for use in the medical imaging field to help train technologists or to evaluate, analyze and adjust the performance of imaging equipment. For CCC&TI students, it means that they can get experience in imaging and positioning a life-sized replica of the human skeletal system without exposing actual humans to the radiation associated with x-ray images. “The phantom is a great tool for us to have in our labs,” said Edwards. “Obviously, students can’t practice on each other, but they can use the phantom to mimic the positioning of a real patient and then actually image it as well. It has a full skeleton inside of it.”
The Radiography program acquired the new phantom in January 2017. While students are getting acquainted with their new “lab partner” Edwards says they’ve not landed on a name for it yet. “A few names have been tossed around but none have stuck yet,” she said. “He really needs a name, though.” Stay tuned to CCC&TI’s Facebook page for new developments on a moniker for the phantom.
For more information about CCC&TI’s Radiography program, call Health Sciences Admissions Coordinator Amy Huffman at 828-726-2710 or email ahuffman@cccti.edu or contact Program Director Amber Edwards at 828-726-2334 or email aledwards@cccti.edu.
