Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Hospitals Diagnose Shortage, Turn to PCC for Remedy

Photos and story by James Hill

by Susan Hereford A unique partnership brings Portland Community College and nine area hospitals together to open a new medical program with a commitment to develop a larger corps of professional sonographers in the region. The consortium of hospitals will underwrite the new Sonography program, which is set to open its doors winter term at the Sylvania Campus with 10 students and recently hired instructor Linda McFarland, a sonographer and administrator who worked for Kaiser Permanente.The new 18-month sonography program is the brainchild of Debbie Biddle, head of PCC’s Radiography program and Mary Savage, who directs imaging for Providence Health System. Savage is also a 1972 graduate of the PCC Radiography program and the current chair of the PCC Foundation board of trustees. According to Biddle, hospitals were motivated to work with the college to create the program due to a severe shortage of sonographers, or ultrasound technologists, in the Willamette Valley and nationally. "This is a highly skilled, technical position with not much opportunity for training in the Portland metro area. The closest accredited program in the Northwest is in Seattle,"Biddle explained. With the addition of sonography to its program line-up, along with existing radiography, the department has changed its name to Medical Imaging in order to reflect both types of programs, said Biddle.Sonography is a field of study that uses sound waves to create images for diagnosing disease. The public is most aware of the sonographer’s work through the use of ultrasound images for pregnant women. However, ultrasound images are used to diagnose any soft tissue, including the liver, kidneys, veins and arteries. It is a fairly new field and is now helping to guide for biopsies in diagnoses of breast, testicular and thyroid cancer and other diseases. Over the last year and a half, Biddle and Savage traveled up and down the valley, meeting with hospital imaging department managers to gauge interest. The program slowly began to take shape and has resulted in each hospital providing a two-year financial commitment to fund the instructor, equipment and program support. Each hospital’s annual share is $7,800 with Providence providing two shares, or $15,600 annually. "They’re very excited,"said Biddle. "Hospitals are looking into additional funds to help the students, not just the program."One of those students, Crystal Clark, could use the extra help. A recent graduate in 1999 of the PCC Radiography program, Clark, 27, is a single parent of a six-year-old who put herself through school working part-time and going to school full time. She decided to make the sacrifice and return to PCC because, "I’m still in the school groove. There have been moments when I’ve questioned ?what am I doing to myself,’ "she laughed. "Actually, a career in sonography is what drew me to the radiology program. I went into the x-ray field because there wasn’t a sonography program in the area and I was not in a position to just pick up and move to a place that might have a spot for me."Clark, currently on the staff of Portland’s Providence imaging department, will also undergo her internship at Providence when she becomes a full-time sonography student."When you study radiography, you live and breathe x-rays,"said Clark. She is preparing herself for the same with ultrasound images. Pam Sprague manages the imaging department for Tuality Hospital in Hillsboro, one of the consortium members. She agrees that the program is rigorous and adds that the caliber of student is high. "This is the inaugural class and the students must be pretty tough to dedicate themselves to this,"said Sprague. "There are stringent requirements just to be eligible to interview for the program."The payoff is not just professional satisfaction. According to Sprague, students will come "right out of school and start out between 30 and 40 (thousand) with full benefits. This is base pay. And a good sonographer can progress pretty rapidly."Sprague sits on the sonography program’s advisory board and she is also the president of the Oregon Ultrasound Society. "The field continues to grow ? there is a desperate shortage of registered diagnostic medical sonographers,"she said. Teaming up with education institutions and providing standardized education is a goal nationally, she added."I was looking for a match for our department,"Sprague said of the interviews for the first class of sonographers. "We will have these students for two years, so our goal is to find the right work ethic, enthusiasm, and team approach. I would say most of us who sit on the advisory board are looking for potential employees."