The minimum of Certified Nurse Aide course is required of all applicants. Contact the ACC Continuing Education Division for information.

The CNA course is not required if you have completed one or more of the following direct patient care programs: Registered Nurse (RN), Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN), Radiologic Technologist (RT-R), Paramedic, EMT-Basic, Respiratory Therapist or Surgical Technologist.

CNA (Certified Nurse Aide) training ensures you have basic patient care skills for the Sonography Program (basic patient care is not re-taught within the Sonography Program), allows you to experience the health-care system, and allows you to discover your ability to work with sick people. If you discover that you do not enjoy working with sick people, you will find that out early in your exploration of health-care professions and you will be able to make a more informed decision about pursuing a health-care career.

CNA training is the same throughout the State of Texas as the State mandates the curriculum, testing, hours, etc. It is a minimum of 108 clock hours (at ACC CNA training includes 68 lecture/lab and 40 clinical rotation hours in a nursing home), therefore it is a very short training program.

Lecture, lab and clinical schedules are provided to the student prior to the beginning of each semester. Due to the intense nature of sonography education, missed class or clinical hours may seriously affect a student’s ability to complete the requirements of his/her course(s). Therefore, all Sonography courses have Attendance Policies which are published in each course syllabus.

Excessive absences, tardiness, and/or leaving the clinical site early may result in the application of the Corrective Actions/Disciplinary Process or even withdrawal from the Program.

All Sonography lecture and clinical courses have a Dress Code. Detailed information on the Sonography Dress Codes is found in the Sonography Student Handbook.

When attending on-campus lecture courses, it is expected that Sonography students maintain a business casual dress style. Many of the ACC classrooms can become chilly or very warm during a class session; wearing long slacks, lightweight shirts or tops and a jacket is the most beneficial. A Sonography student may be dismissed from class if he/she is wearing inappropriate and/or distracting clothing while in a lecture class.

For clinical courses, Sonography students are required to meet a Dress Code which includes wearing a teal scrub top, pant, warm-up jacket and white shoes. Hair must be off the face and neck (short or pulled into a bun), make-up must be lightly applied, beards must be trimmed to the jaw line, earrings (no other visible body piercings are allowed) must be small, unobtrusive posts or very small hoops, no visible tattoos are allowed, and fingernails must be trimmed and no polish is allowed. Absolutely no perfume, cologne or even personal care products with strong scents are allowed. No badges or insignias other than program required ID and name badges are allowed.

Sonography students and Sonographers must demonstrate physical and psychomotor skills such as dynamic, static, and trunk strength and stamina/endurance, arm-hand steadiness, control precision, dynamic flexibility, extent flexibility, finger dexterity, manual dexterity, multi-limb coordination, reaction time, speed of limb movement, auditory attention, hearing sensitivity, sound location, near and far vision in bright and dim lighting, and visual color discrimination.

All general education co-requisite and Sonography courses in the Sonography curricula must be completed with a grade of “C” or better for a student to progress to the next semester of the Program. If a student receives a grade of “D” or lower in any course of the curricula, he/she is withdrawn from the Program. A student may apply for re-admission to a Sonography Program one time only and must follow the Re-admission Policy found in the Sonography Student Handbook. A student withdrawn from a Sonography Program for academic dishonesty, falsification of documentation, confirmed substance abuse, change in criminal history, or removal from a clinical site for cause is not eligible for re-entry into any Sonography Program.

A student may be assigned to any clinical site utilized by the Sonography Program.* Clinical sites are located in various locations in Austin, San Marcos, Round Rock, Georgetown, Cedar Park, and Killeen. Students are assigned to a variety of clinical settings throughout the program and must have reliable transportation to any site. A student may not request an assignment to a particular site.

* This does not include students in the Cardiac Sonography Advanced Technical Certificate program.

All students must be able to access the ACC online teaching platform, Blackboard, and must be accessible via an electronic mail address. Students may utilize any of the computers on any ACC campus to create and check their email accounts and to access Blackboard. Blackboard and email accounts should be checked frequently for assignments, announcements and/or messages. Students are responsible for keeping email addresses current by updating their Blackboard Personal Information as needed.

Sonography students are required to demonstrate a variety of computer skills throughout the length of the program. Students are required to access the Internet and perform Web searches, submit all writing assignments as Word documents, and access and utilize the College on-line teaching platform, Blackboard. Students are required to utilize Trajecsys (online clinical record keeping system) for all clinical courses. Students may be required to develop charts and tables, Power Point presentations, etc. for specific courses (refer to course syllabus for assignments). In addition, all Sonography clinical sites utilize computer systems for patient schedules and patient information; all Sonography students must be able to utilize any clinical site’s data/patient management system as allowed by the clinical site.

A student who is unfamiliar with using a computer or who has limited computer skills is expected to seek instruction in computer programs and usage so that he/she will be able to meet the requirements of his/her courses.

Please see the latest Sonography Student Handbook for this information.