4 - Department Information & Policies

The following section discusses information and policies specific to the Department of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences. 

The Department of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences departmental office and faculty offices are located on the third floor of the College of Allied Health building in Oklahoma City.  Programmatic labs are on the first and second floors.  

Faculty offices and programmatic classrooms are located on the second floor of the Academic Building in Tulsa.   

Room numbers for departmental laboratories and other facilities are as follows: 

Oklahoma City

1024                            Sonography Laboratory

1032                            Radiography Laboratory

1036                            CT Simulation Laboratory

1037                            Image Processing Lab

1038                            Nuclear Medicine Imaging Laboratory

1039                            Radiation Therapy / Dosimetry Laboratory

2038                            Radiation Therapy/ VERT Laboratory

Tulsa

2D34                          Sonography Class Laboratory

A list of departmental faculty and their office numbers is located on the MIRS web site.

When addressing faculty in the College and other facilities, students should use the last names of faculty preceded by Professor, Mr., Ms., or Dr., as applicable or requested by that individual.  This form of address also applies to staff, clinic instructors/preceptors, supervising technologists, physicians, and patients at all clinic affiliates.  Addressing people with appropriate recognition serves to strengthen proper relationships and mutual respect among faculty, clinicians, patients and students. 

Faculty, staff, administrative offices, and campus organizations frequently notify students of important information via their OUHSC email address.  Students should check their campus email daily but not during clinic hours. 

Texting is not an accepted form of communication between faculty and students. Students should contact faculty via telephone, department voicemail, or email. This applies to both class and clinic activities.

Failure to respond to faculty email, phone calls, or other communication in a timely fashion, as communicated by the faculty member, is unprofessional and may result in a Zerograde or other sanction.

Students may communicate with faculty via phone, email or by visiting faculty offices.  Students are asked to schedule appointments when more serious advisement or discussion sessions are needed.

When visiting a faculty member’s office, the following rules apply:

• Knock on office doors and wait until asked to enter.
• If the door is open but the faculty member is occupied in conference or telephone call, wait outside until the faculty member becomes available.
• If a student’s business is urgent, a message should be left with the departmental staff indicating where the student may be reached when the faculty member is free.
• In an emergency situation when a specific faculty member is unavailable, the student should refer the problem/request to another faculty member or administrator so that it can receive immediate attention.
• Students should not leave assignments under a faculty member’s office door.  They should be submitted to the program mailbox or given to a departmental staff who will log in receipt of the material and bring it to the faculty member’s attention upon his/her return.
• Students must not enter faculty offices, borrow items, or use office facilities without the faculty member being present.  Rare exceptions to this rule may arise but only by advance arrangement with the faculty member, who will request a member of the staff or faculty assist the student in his/her absence.  Students entering unoccupied faculty offices without prior arrangements may be subject to disciplinary action.

When emailing a faculty member, the following rules apply:

• Use your OUHSC email. 
• Provide specific information in the subject line, ex. Specific course, assignment, etc. 
• Stay on topic with email threads. If starting a new conversation or question to the faculty, start a new email. Do not use a previous email to reply to faculty about an unrelated topic.
• Address your faculty member appropriately. 
• Email communications should be professional and respectful. 
• Provide adequate time for response, typically 1 – 2 working days.  

Staff members are an integral part of the department and deserve respect and courtesy.  They support the department’s educational mission, but their services are not at the disposal of students.  Students should not request the staff to make photocopies, type letters or papers, or transmit incoming personal messages, unless in a declared emergency (e.g. child-care or family emergency). 

An electronic file is maintained in the department office files for all students.  The following items are generally maintained in this file:

• Enrollment forms and course sequences
• Memoranda documenting disciplinary action
• Copies of reference letters and other documentation a student requests a faculty member to provide
• Letters of commendation and documents noting special achievement
• Departmental release forms

Students are responsible for mastering the content of all courses in which they are enrolled. Specific requirements for class attendance are the responsibility of the individual course instructor and will be contained in the course syllabus.  Attendance is required in all department courses.

When absences affect a student’s coursework, the instructor will schedule a formal meeting with the student and may also impose disciplinary action in accordance with department policies.  If absences are excessive, a student may be withdrawn from the program in accordance with university policy.

It is recognized that while in the program, situations may arise that could cause a student to be late to or absent from class or clinic rotation.  Healthcare providers are expected to provide service to individuals regardless of personal conditions in their own lives; therefore, absence and tardiness should be kept to a minimum.  A professional sense of responsibility in such matters is required from the outset of the program to develop the professional attitude expected by employers.

Guidelines for notification of absence from a clinic rotation are provided in Section 3, Clinical Education Policies. The following are guidelines for absence from all other programmatic activities:

• A student must contact or leave a message in advance for all faculty in which courses he/she will be absent or tardy. Failure to contact a faculty member may impact a student’s course grade as delineated in the course syllabus.
• If absence will last several days, the student should contact his/her program director to explain the situation and the expected date of return. 
• It is the student’s responsibility to be familiar with absence policies in course syllabi and to contact each course instructor upon return to school regarding options to make up missed work. 
• Students with military or jury duty must inform their program director as soon as possible and provide documentary evidence of the activity.  These students must notify all course faculty of their absence and make advance arrangements for makeup of missed tests, labs, etc.

Make-up activities are at the discretion of each course instructor, including make-up of clinic time and interim or final examinations.  The faculty member has the authority to assign a grade of “0” for any missed work unrelated to communicated military duty or jury duty. The faculty member can request documentation of an incident to excuse an absence, without documentation the absence may be deemed unexcused. 

Information on campus closings is announced by the OU emergency alert system, the television media, the OUHSC or OU-Tulsa home page, and at 405-271-6499 (OKC) or 918-660-3999 (Tulsa).

If academic units of the Health Sciences Center Campus or OU-Tulsa Campus are officially closed by the Senior Vice President and Provost or the University President due to hazardous weather or other conditions, students are excused from all didactic courses.  If a single campus is affected, the College computing staff will attempt to initiate video capture of all classroom lectures which are being video-conferenced, so that, at the discretion of the instructor, those class sessions may be made available via video streaming.

Students assigned to be in the clinic setting on the Health Sciences Center Campus or OU-Tulsa campus when a campus and/or an academic unit is officially closed, due to hazardous weather or other conditions, are dismissed from clinic. This clinic time is not required to be made up, so long as the closure impacts 3 days of clinic or fewer for seniors and 2 days of clinic or fewer for juniors, during a given semester. 

However, students in clinic are considered professionals-in-training and are learning the responsibilities of health care providers whose services are vital to patients, clinics, and hospitals. Therefore, students are still held responsible for meeting performance and competency requirements for each semester, and as such, fulfillment of these minimum standards may necessitate making up of the allotted clinic time in order to complete the requirements. 

If a campus is not officially closed, and a student chooses not to attend classes or clinic due to the weather or other conditions, they must follow the policies for notification of absence and will be responsible to making up missed clinic time and appropriate class activities. These absences may be unexcused.  See course syllabus for details related to unexcused absences.

Some clinic affiliates recognize holidays that are not observed by the University. When students are assigned to such a clinic site, they are not responsible for clinic attendance that day but must notify their clinic coordinator of such holidays and attend all scheduled classes.

In the unlikely event that a clinic affiliate unexpectedly closes for equipment updates or other reasons, a student must contact his/her clinic coordinator or program director immediately for assignment to another facility or alternate activity.

Additional policies and procedures of interest to students, general safety, hazardous weather, and emergency services may be found at the Campus Police and Public Safety website.

The Department of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences is committed to educating radiographers, nuclear medicine technologists, radiation therapists, and sonographers who meet nationally accepted ethical and performance standards in their professional fields. Student employment in the capacity of an unsupervised practitioner in the discipline in which the student has not yet completed training is strongly discouraged. Students considering such employment should discuss the situation with their Program Director. 
 
In the event a student does accept general employment during the program, it remains the student’s responsibility to meet all requirements of the professional program, such as attendance in class, clinic rotations, competencies and satisfactory grades. In accordance with program accreditation standards, students are not allowed to receive payment as employees during scheduled clinic rotations. In addition, under no circumstances will professional employment hours or activities substitute for assigned clinical education requirements.
 
A student anticipating such employment should first discuss the matter with their program director.  Students accepting employment must complete a Professional Employment Notification form available on the MIRS Department website. Departmental approval of professional employment in no way implies any level of department responsibility for the student when he/she is engaged in employment activities. 

Students engaging in professional employment should be aware that based on accreditation standards, they are not allowed to receive payment for services rendered while on scheduled clinic rotations.   Students receiving payment while on scheduled clinic rotations can receive a Zerograde, delay their graduation, and/or jeopardize the program’s accreditation.  Additionally, student malpractice insurance covers them only while they are on assigned clinical rotations as a student. 

If a student is certified in another medical imaging/ radiation sciences modality, he or she may not act as an employee or be substituted as an employee of the facility under any circumstance during regularly scheduled clinical rotations. 

University and College IT require all students to encrypt their laptops. Encryption helps protect the data on your device so it can only be accessed by people who have authorization. This helps protect any private data stored on your computer should your laptop be stolen. This is a critical component to being HIPAA compliant. 

• Instructions for encryption for Windows and Mac users 
• For questions and help please contact the IT Service Desk for your campus.

Students should access secure resources through the MyDesk (VDI) system.  VDI should be used any time PHI is being accessed or utilized for assignments, and other times when instructed by faculty.  

• Student Virtual Desktop Sign Up 
• Student Virtual Desktop Instructions
• For help, check out the MyDesk Knowledge Base Article

Students are required to have their laptop computers available for examinations and in-class assignments. Students should come to the class with their laptop fully charged and with all required software installed and updated.  The number of available outlets for charging laptops are limited in some classrooms. Should a student come to class without their required laptop, he/she will be expected to retrieve his/her laptop immediately and complete the exam or assignment with what time remains in class.  Forgetting to bring a laptop will not be an acceptable excuse to extend the time period assigned to complete the exam or assignment nor to request a make-up exam or assignment.  IT services have limited laptops that are used for system-testing purposes but those laptops are not distributed on a regular basis to students who forget their laptop. If the examination time period permits, a classmate’s laptop may be used to take or complete an exam, however, one should not expect that someone else will make their laptop available. Students are responsible for content missed while retrieving their laptop and the time missed will be considered an unexcused absence. Failure to comply with this policy may result in the student receiving no credit for the exam or assignment.

All students are required to behave in a professional and respectful manner while in class and clinic and comply with the Electronic Devices policy in the CAH Student Handbook. 

Because of interference with classroom technology all electronic devices should be ‘off’ while in the classroom unless previously approved by faculty. 

Students should also have cell phones, iPhones, or other electronic devices turned “off” while in clinic and laboratories.   
 

Students shall not post or forward photos, comments, or any other material of OU faculty, students, clinical personnel, or patients to any social media site, without the person’s written permission or the patient’s written authorization. Students should be especially careful to avoid discussing any information protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Any student found to have posted, supplied, or forwarded copyright or protected course materials to online communication sites without written permission or authorization shall be subject to disciplinary action and/or state or federal action. If HIPAA policy is accidentally breeched, the student should report the breech to their PD immediately so steps can be taken to mitigate the incident. 

In addition to being subject to the University’s HIPAA Privacy and Security policies, students are also held to the standards outlined in the MIRS Essential Competency Policy and Document, Zerograde policy and the University Procedures for Handling Breaches of Ethical and Professional Behavior Standards. 
 

Students may be recorded by audio and/or video while attending class or seminars.  These recordings are shared with other classmates and faculty using a secured password protected portal.   Any specific behavior that does not meet the Essential Competencies during these audio and video captures may be used in cases of academic misconduct proceedings. 

Students must request permission to audio or video record any lecture, laboratory or educational occurrence with another individual including faculty, students or clinical personnel.   

Facilities, equipment, and supplies of the Departmental office are for the use of faculty and staff.  Students should arrive for class with the necessary equipment and supplies and should not borrow pencils, paper, and other items from the Departmental office.

Students should contribute to the cleanliness of the College by appropriately disposing of all food items, paper, and other trash.  Students using a classroom or laboratory should leave the room as they found it, including returning technology to the default setting or placing furniture in an orderly manner for use by the next occupants of the room.

Classes are in session in the Allied Health Building (OKC) and in the Academic Buildings (Tulsa) from 7:00 am until 10:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.  Therefore, noise level in hallways, laboratories, classes, lounges, and offices should be kept low to prevent disruption of classes and meetings.  Doors to labs, classes, and common areas should be kept closed to reduce noise.  Televisions in labs and classrooms are for educational purposes only and should not be used to view commercial television programming.

Students must maintain departmental clinic simulation laboratories with as much care and order as actual patient care facilities. Maintenance of laboratories in the clinic setting is the responsibility of practitioners; therefore, students are expected to assume maintenance and organization responsibility for laboratories in the educational environment.  

Each program will provide students with specific procedures for maintenance and safe use of its laboratory. Many of these rules are mandated by federal or state regulations; therefore, failure to observe policies regarding laboratory use may subject a student to disciplinary action.

General Laboratory Guidelines: 

• Students are not permitted to use any laboratory without first obtaining permission from a faculty member in their designated program. The faculty member must be present in the lab, Department and/or on campus depending on the program. 
• All laboratory equipment must be correctly turned off when laboratory exercises are completed.
• Accidents, questions or problems when using laboratory equipment should be brought to the immediate attention of the supervising faculty member.
• Use of laboratory facilities after school hours is strictly by advanced arrangement with a faculty member, who must be on-site to supervise the activity.
• Lab materials including videos, images and equipment must remain in the laboratory unless a faculty member has authorized removal by a student.
• Laboratory supplies are purchased with student fees. Careful use of supplies and reduction of waste will assist in maintaining fees at their current level.
• Faculty should be notified when laboratory supplies are running low so more can be ordered in a timely manner.
• Eating, drinking, smoking, and other tobacco use is prohibited in laboratories.
• The image processing laboratory (AHB 1037) has specific guidelines for proper use and care of the equipment that are communicated by the specific program faculty. 

Ionizing Radiation Laboratory Guidelines:   

• For any laboratory exercises using ionizing radiation, a faculty member must be aware of the activity and on campus.  
• In ionizing radiation laboratories, students may only use phantoms to perform procedures or activities.  Under no circumstances should fellow students or human models be scanned.  
• When a radiography faculty is not available for supervision, the X-ray and CT equipment exposure mechanism will remain disabled and locked. 
• Doors to labs must be kept closed at all times.  The door to AHB 1032 and AHB CT must be locked when x-ray equipment is being used.
• Students using AHB 1038 must always have badges and lab coats since there are sealed sources of radioactivity present. Additionally, if students use the sealed sources they must be returned and locked in the radioactive materials cabinet.
• Radiation dosimeters must be worn when working in laboratories using ionizing radiation.
• Students must follow all radiation safety policies applicable to the laboratory setting. 

Sonography Laboratory for Scanning Human Subjects

• Students may scan fellow students or human models when an appropriate release form has been signed, a witness is present and faculty are on campus.   
• Students should sign up for and/or request to be in the lab scanning at least 24 hours prior to scanning to ensure that faculty will be present. 
• All scans performed in the sonography laboratory are for educational and scientific purposes
• Minors may never be scanned, even with parental consent
• Students should not scan themselves 
• Scanning of pregnant patients will follow the profession’s AIUM Guidelines for hands-on scanning of pregnant subjects during educational activities which includes:    
  • Subject participation should require appropriate informed consent. The obstetrician providing prenatal care should provide written permission for the educational scan.
  • There will be no first trimester examinations. 
  • The subjects should be without fever and have already received a prenatal scan in the 2nd trimester.
  • Exposure time, i.e. duration of student scanning should not exceed 1 hour per subject per pregnancy.
  • There should be no pulsed Doppler examinations.
  • Examinations should be performed in a manner consistent with the As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) principle, including limiting the TI (≤0.70) and MI (<1.0) as necessary for educational purposes.

Managing incidental findings in the sonography laboratory

• When there is an incidental finding, the supervising faculty should be notified immediately. 
• No attempt at making a medical diagnosis will be made. 
• Observations made will not be used for medical treatment or management.
• No verbal or written report will be generated for medical purposes. 
• The student or human model will be referred to their physician for follow-up.

Advanced standing examinations of program coursework may be attempted by students in accordance with University policy on Extra-Institutional Learning.  The Department Chair coordinates departmental advanced standing examinations.  Students wishing to attempt advanced standing examinations should first consult with their program director, then the Department Chair.  Further information is located: 

OUHSC Student Handbook

Department policy recommends, but does not require, that students be allowed to review a graded examination.  Students should generally be permitted to review a graded paper or project within a reasonable time. A two-week limit for reporting grades is considered reasonable.  To provide a fair and consistent testing environment that discourages academic misconduct, departmental faculty may utilize the following standards when conducting proctored tests and quizzes:  

• Time will be given just prior to the start of the examination for faculty to prepare the testing environment.
• Exams must be taken at the time and place indicated by the course instructor.
• For proctored online exams, the course instructor may require a password to access the exam. The password will be provided in the proctored location at the scheduled time.
• Hats or hoodies may not be worn while taking the exam.
• Programmable calculators (including devices such as cell phones or smart watches) are not permitted.
• Instructors will provide scratch paper if needed.
• All electronic communication devices must be stored in backpack or in a designated area during an exam or quiz and should be turned completely off.
• Book bags, notebooks, flash cards, electronic communication devices and other items must be put away before the exam begins.
• Items other than materials needed for the examination may not be allowed in the testing room.
• Students may not leave the testing room until the exam in completed unless they are acutely ill.
• Students arriving late must schedule a make-up version of the exam if any student has already completed the assessment and left the testing room prior to the late arrival.
• Seating guidelines will be used. 

Faculty in the Department adhere to the University schedule and policy concerning final examinations unless an exception is granted at the beginning of the semester.  Every course will have a final examination unless otherwise announced by the instructor. Early final examinations are prohibited.  When a final examination is given, the student must take the examination unless a makeup examination has been discussed with the course instructor.  A student will not be expected to take more than two examinations in one day. The OUHSC final examination schedule is published online with additional information listed for each semester.  

Grades may be posted on the web in D2L® or Canvas at the faculty’s discretion. At the end of each semester, students should compare their transcript to the displayed grade in the course to confirm the final posted grade is accurate. 

The Department believes it is providing opportunities for development of the person as a professional.  Students are required and/or encouraged to join their respective professional association(s) and participate in professional meetings, activities, and competitions. Opportunities for participation vary with each Department program. Junior students are encouraged to attend local professional activities while senior students are encouraged to travel to state, regional, and national meetings. 
 
Though the department encourages students to attend professional meetings, it does not assume responsibility for expenses. Expenses are the responsibility of the student.   The College of Allied Health may provide student support for professional travel for in state and out of state meetings.   Students should contact their CAHSA representative to learn about annual funds that are offered. 

In addition, if stated conditions for participation in educational activities at the meeting are not met, the student may be required to make up the absence according to the clinical absence make-up policy.