Research on How to Best Select Students for Ultrasound Programs (Part 1)
This is the first in a series of blogs related to methodology for selecting ultrasound students. In general, as they used to say before the old television program of Dragnet, “the names have been changed to protect the innocent.”
At the annual SDMS 2008 conference at the Foxwood Casino in Connecticut, I was standing in my Pegasus booth discussing with three ultrasound educators the difficulty they had in selecting students for their ultrasound college programs. To a large degree, their lamentations were related to a perception that students of recent years just did not seem to have the same work ethics, study habits, persistence, or abilities (now you see why no names will be given) as students from the years gone by (the years when we all walked to school, in snowstorms, with no shoes, carrying 350 pounds of books that we paid for by not eating for 6 weeks, up hill, both ways). As I asked the small group a few probing questions about current admission practices, a consensus was reached that student selection was a real issue for which a solution was truly needed. And, although the discussion was focused on how to select ultrasound students, I got the distinct impression that this conversation could have taken place concerning myriad other disciplines with the same conclusion. So I asked if the group would be interested in helping me get some research started. The answer was a resounding yes.
