Notes from GB

Gary Brown

Program Director

Welcome to our electronic newsletter! I appreciate the work of Stacy Butts (’98) in putting together this edition of the newsletter. It is our hope that this will be an easy way to communicate with our graduates, students, prospective students, and friends of our program. We hope you are all doing well in your career endeavors. It’s always a pleasure to hear from each of you, whether by phone, email, or in writing.

This past year, I had the honor of serving as Parliamentarian for the AARC House of Delegates. Claude Dockter (’90), who was speaker of the HOD for 2005, asked me to be his parliamentarian and help run each meeting. The HOD is always an interesting experience as the most up to date issues in the profession are discussed and actions are taken to try and address those issues. Dawn Rost (Olson-’94), NDSU graduate and former instructor, also is serving in the HOD as one of the two North Dakota delegates. Two meetings were held; Orlando in July, and San Antonio in December.

I also attended the AARC International Congress in San Antonio. It was a real pleasure to see so many of our alumni there, including:

• Claude Dockter (’90) – Coordinator of Clinical Services, Great Plains Rehab Services, Bismarck, ND
• Donna Elbert (’95) – Regional Manager, Precision Diagnostics, Fargo, ND
• Chris Gerlach (’00) – RT Supervisor at Methodist Hospital, St. Louis Park, MN
• Vanessa King (’92) – Program Director of the Mayo/U of M RC Program, Rochester, MN
• John Lund (’84) – Co-Owner, Precision Diagnostic Services, Fargo, ND
• Dawn Rost (‘94 ) – RT Coordinator, MeritCare Children’s Hospital, Fargo, ND
• Angie Skyberg (’98) – PA at Bridges Medical Services, Ada, MN
• Joy Snyder (’91) – RT Manager, Innovis Health, Fargo, ND
• Eric Vangerud (’89) – Pulmonary Function Coordinator at Nemours Children's Clinic, Orlando, FL
• Wes Ware (’93) – Flight Therapist, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Little Rock, AR

We have continued to make changes and to grow since the last newsletter. Our new home for the school is on 1 North at MeritCare Hospital (previously the PFT lab and then Sleep Center). In this new space we have a classroom, 2 labs, a computer resource center, and faculty offices. It’s great to have the school facility all in one area, and to finally have the space we need to complete all the functions of student and staff education effectively! Our current faculty consists of Robyn Urlacher (’97), Clinical Coordinator, and Stacy Butts (’98) and Dawn Aberle (’00), Instructors.

Outcomes of our program remain high, with above national pass rates and mean scores on Certification and Registry Examinations. We continue to have 100% satisfaction on graduate and employer surveys as well. We also complete an annual review of program resources, which helps identify areas for improvement that we can work on to make our program better. An active advisory committee (which has a large number of our graduates serving as members) has helped us with curriculum and program decisions in recent years. We appreciate each one of you that has helped provide feedback by serving with this group. Our accreditation process will be up for review this year, and we expect an onsite visit in April.

MeritCare has continued with its renovation and expansion in 2005. The new Heart Center and new main entrance on the north side of the hospital was opened. The Heart Center includes new cath labs, cardiac diagnostics, and cardiology clinic offices. A new day unit for patients admitted to the hospital for surgery or same day procedures was also opened in the north addition. The newly renovated Children’s Hospital opened, including a new PICU, Pediatrics, and NICU. Next on the renovation list will be a new ER, and new Cardiac and Medical/Surgical Intensive Care Units. If you are in the area visiting, give us a call and stop in for a quick tour of the facility!

Check out these pictures of our new space:

The RT Classroom