What are clinical rotations? Are they required for the DMS program?
Clinical rotations are formal arrangements that provide DMS students with hands-on experience at an ultrasound facility. Clinical hours are required by the DMS program and for American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers (ARDMS) certification upon graduation. By the end of the DMS program, students will complete 1560 clinical hours. While on-site, students are supervised by a clinical instructor who participates in the grading of required clinical competencies. Learning to produce good ultrasound images takes a lot of practice. The only way to learn is by scanning. Face to Face Lab time provides each student with hands-on scanning. Open scans (extra supervised scanning times) are also available — try to take advantage of them. Clinical time after the first semester is where much of the “hands-on” learning will take place. The DMS program classwork doesn’t provide hands-on experience for invasive studies (i.e. transvaginal, transesophogeal, and transrectal).
