An Evaluation of Qualities of Nuclear Medicine Technology Programs and Graduates Leading to Employability.

Rationale: To evaluate the association between qualities of nuclear medicine technology (NMT) programs and graduates, and employability. Methods: We identified all NMT certification board applicants who passed the entry level NMT exam between 2012 and 2017. Certificants were e-mailed a survey with questions regarding graduate qualities, program qualities, and initial employment. Each quality was quantified. Age, gender, and desired employment within or outside the USA were also documented. An employability scale was created from the initial employment questions. Subjects were separated into four employability groups based on their employability score: poorly employable, marginally employable, satisfactorily employable, and optimally employable. An ANOVA test was performed on each quality using the four employability groups; a p-value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: 3,930 surveys were distributed; 884 certificants (22.5%) returned completed surveys. Six of the 10 qualities evaluated were significantly associated with employability: overall education (p<0.01), number of clinic hours (p<0.01), grade-point average (p<0.01), number of schools in a 100-mile radius (p<0.01),number of board attempts (p<0.01), and number of clinics ( P = 0.04). The qualities that were not statistically significant were age, gender, employment location sought, board score, single vs. dual certification, program level of education, and number of graduates in the class. Conclusion: There are multiple graduate and program qualities which are predictive of employability of NMT graduates.