Attendance and hours
The program is considered full-time, and students are scheduled for six to eight hours a day, five days a week. Clinical hours of attendance will vary in accordance with the individual student's rotational assignment. Students will be required to complete evening and weekend clinical rotations in order to obtain necessary trauma competencies, as well as to increase confidence and independence. In accordance with Accreditation Standards of the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology (JRCERT), students are not permitted to be scheduled for more than 10 hours per day or 40 hours per week in total program activities (classes, labs and clinical rotations). Norton KDH radiology students spend a total of approximately 1,000 hours in the didactic setting and 2,000 hours in the clinical arena.
Each school year begins on July 1 and ends approximately June 30. The program is a continuous 24 months of study leading to a certificate.
All didactic classes are held at Norton KDH. Clinical education is conducted at the facilities of the Norton King's Daughters' Hospital, the Norton KDH Main Campus Office Building, the Norton Convenient Care Center, and the Norton KDH Downtown Medical Building. The Norton KDH School of Radiologic Technology includes opportunities for students to rotate through several outpatient facilities, because these rotations allow students the opportunity to explore career options in different radiology environments. Each student is scheduled to spend an equal amount of time in the assigned clinical rotations. This ensures a fair and impartial education for all students.
Students are routinely scheduled for three days of didactic courses and two days of clinical rotations per week for their first four weeks of training. Thereafter, and for the remainder of the program, students are scheduled for two days of didactic courses and three days of clinical rotations per week, with the exception of the 13th month of training, in which no didactic classes are held. Students are focused only on their clinical rotations during this time. Please note: Students are responsible for their own transportation to and from all didactic and clinical rotation assignments.
The didactic laboratory and clinical components of instruction are essential to properly prepare all students for entry into the profession. To meet this objective, attendance and participation in all classroom, laboratory and clinical sessions are required.
Vacation time is scheduled throughout the two years for all students. Students must take their vacation during the scheduled periods and may not exchange them for other time periods. This policy is to ensure that all students receive all material in the appropriate sequence.
Students receive six holidays per year: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day (Fourth of July), Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Students are also scheduled to be off on these dates: Good Friday, the Friday following Thanksgiving, Christmas break (one week) and one week after the completion of each semester. In addition, no student will be scheduled for Easter, Memorial Day, Labor Day or Thanksgiving weekends.
Each new first-year student will begin with a clean attendance record. Forty (40) hours of time will be placed in their "bank." When a student is absent or tardy or leaves early, etc., the time missed will be removed from their bank. Students will be given updated attendance reports at the beginning of each month. If a student exceeds his or her "bank" of time, all hours exceeding 40 will have to be made up on the student's time off, at the discretion of the program faculty. At the end of the first year, 40 new hours will be added for the second year of training. No hours can be carried over from the first year. No student will be allowed to add hours to their "bank." There is an extended absence policy and an excessive absenteeism policy outlined in the student handbook, which is issued to students on the first day of class.
For more information, please see the program description.