Method Study to Compare a CAAHEP Accredited Advanced Cardiac Sonography Program With Two Pilot Advanced Sonography Programs

Abstract

The aim was to review the value of advanced sonography programs and to quantitatively evaluate the educational outcomes of two pilot advanced sonography programs (e.g., vascular and perinatal) with a well-established Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) accredited Advanced Cardiac Sonography Program. The first phase of this sequential mixed-method study was to conduct a document analysis and extracting themes from published literature to highlight the content, benefits, and development of advanced sonography programs. The second phase was to implement a one-group pre-test post-test design to address the population, intervention, control, and outcomes (PICO) question: Among a sample of 12 participants (P), what are the effects of advanced programs (I) in cardiac, vascular, and perinatal sonography (C) on students’ composite knowledge, across 12 course levels and one clinical internship (O)? The document analysis identified four latent themes: (1) the benefits of sonographer certification; (2) the need for sonographers to continuously develop their knowledge and skills; (3) the need to develop sonographers in diverse specialties of medicine; and (4) the need to develop new credentials for advanced practice sonographers. The effects of the three advanced sonography programs on the composite knowledge of the graduates were impressive, indicated by Hedges’ g = 2.02 (moderate) to 2.71 (large) effect size. Triangulation of data revealed that the four latent themes were consistent with the evaluation of the content and outcomes of the advanced cardiac, perinatal, and vascular sonography programs. Consistency between theory and practice and similar educational outcomes were achieved when comparing a well-established Advanced Cardiac Sonography Program with two pilot programs in advanced perinatal sonography and advanced vascular sonography. As this is the first comparison of this type, distinct conclusions that apply to all allied health programs cannot be drawn. The data collection in this study is a set of outcome measures that fits into a larger picture of academic success for these programs.