Like every year, the “American Society of Radiologic Technologists” has recently published its annual survey reports in “ASRT Enrollment Snapshot”. This report has offered some analysis of the enrollment trends in the domains of radiation therapy, nuclear medicine, and radiology programs for the year 2021.

Survey Questionnaire Design

All the 961 directors of the programs approved by the Radiologic Technologists’ American Registry received this survey. 28.8% (277) of them participated in this survey. The survey included questions regarding the fall and the rise in the number of student enrollment. Questions about the number of students, graduating and failing to complete the programs successfully were also a part of the survey questionnaire. The survey also focused on the impact of COVID-19 on enrollment volumes and clinical rotations.

The Results

The study found that the domain of radiography programs has suffered a marginal loss in terms of enrollment volumes. As compared to 15,620 students in 2020, this program’s enrollment has shrunk to 15,477 in 20221. On the contrary, laterals like radiation therapy and nuclear medicine program have seen an increase in enrollment volumes. In 2020, the former program had 1182 enrolled students, which, in 2021, grew to 1275. For nuclear medicine programs, enrollment volume has grown to 1300 in 2021 from 1076 in 2020.

The surveyors repeated a question in the questionnaire for the second time in a row. It was about the number of sites allowing the students to complete their clinical procedures online. The study found that only 39% of these sites allowed the exam procedures in May 2020. This time frame clearly indicates the first few months of the Pandemic. However, the 2021 numbers were higher by 10%for these sites.

The Dwindling Numbers

The number of programs allowing students to complete exams on patients with known or suspected COVID-19 also decreased in 2021. In October of 2020, 74% of programs allowed students to have contact with such patients, but only 61% approved of doing so in 2021.

By the end of 2021, the number of programs that allowed students to conduct exams on patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 also diminished. In 2020, the number was as high as 74%. This means that more people could reach the facilities in times of the pandemic. However, this percentage of programs allowing students, access to the patients through their sites decreased to 61% in 2021.

All programs were inevitably forced to make adjustments to their educational practices due to COVID. But the survey results reveal resiliency in the directors’ abilities to adapt by offering virtual solutions, online resources, adjusted clinical requirements and extended schedules. These all allowed students to meet their requirements at a later date—a trend that has been witnessed across healthcare education.

For the COVID pandemic, all programs had to accommodate new ways to continue educational practices. The study showed that the directors somehow managed to cope with the situation by providing online resources, virtual solutions, extended schedules and attuned clinical requirements. All these provisions helped the students get what they needed sometime later. This trend was consistent throughout the healthcare education domain.

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