Dissertation Abstract

An Analysis of Radiation Therapy Program Directors' Attitudes Toward Specialized Accreditation (Program Directors).

This study used a survey to determine the relationship that existed between the attitudes of radiation therapy program directors toward programmatic accreditation by the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technologies (JRCERT) and toward a new policy of the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) that recognized graduation from an institution accredited by a regional accrediting agency as a pre-requisite to take the national certification examination in radiologic science. In addition, the responses of collegiate and hospital-based program directors were compared using an independent t-test. A survey response rate of 73.7% resulted in the following findings:

(1) A Pearson's product moment revealed a significant negative relationship (r = $-$.8628, p =.000) between radiation therapy program directors' attitudes toward JRCERT accreditation and the ARRT policy.

(2) There was a high level of support for JRCERT accreditation as indicated by a high level of agreement (X = 3.39, SD =.97, n = 72) with the survey item which addressed support of programmatic accreditation. This quantitative finding was reinforced by results of the open-ended question in which 80% of respondents reported a positive attitude toward programmatic accreditation.

(3) There was a low level of support for the ARRT policy as indicated by a low level of agreement (X = 1.88, SD= 1.28, n = 72) with the survey item which addressed support of the ARRT policy. This finding was reinforced by results of the open-ended question in which 50% of respondents reported a negative attitude. On this same question, only 27.5% of respondents reported a positive attitude toward the ARRT policy while 22.5% were undecided about the policy.

(4) An independent t-test revealed no significant difference between the attitudes of program directors in hospital and collegiate-sponsored radiation therapy programs toward either JRCERT accreditation (t =.54, p =.591) or the ARRT policy (t = $-$1.17, p =.254). .

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