“There’s a nationwide shortage of technologists, but particularly in Kentucky,” said Stephanie Hug, assistant professor and director of UC’s AMIT program. “There’s only one MRI program in Kentucky, and that’s at Morehead State University, which is in the eastern part of the state. There’s no nuclear medicine technology program [in Kentucky] currently.”

To help reduce this gap in education, Hug is finalizing a clinical agreement with Norton Healthcare — which provides inpatient and outpatient general care as well as heart, neuroscience, cancer, orthopedic, women’s and pediatric specialty care in Louisville, Kentucky, and Southern Indiana — that would enable UC AMIT students to apply for a yearlong clinical placement and learn alongside Norton’s licensed technologists.

This partnership, which is expected to launch in fall 2025, will help create a pipeline of potential technologists that Norton could hire. It also provides UC’s CAHS access to another hospital system that can train students on high-level therapeutics like Pluvicto, a radiation therapy used to shrink prostate cancer cells, and Lutathera, a radioactive treatment for advanced neuroendocrine tumors.

Securing a clinical site that offers these kind of advanced learning experiences and has both experienced and early-career technologists — like Sall — who can facilitate student learning is a “huge deal,” Hug said.

Sall is excited to serve as a clinical facilitator for students once the partnership is final, recalling how much she admired the technologists and UC alumni who helped train her during her five clinical placements in the AMIT program.

“[Often], when students go to clinical sites, they are very afraid. I was in that position where I felt scared to mess up or scared of certain techs,” Sall said. “[Since I] just graduated from this program, [I feel like I’ll be] able to reassure them and tell them ‘It’s OK, I’m still learning,’ and help with their education and make them feel comfortable.”

After completing the program’s freshman and sophomore year curriculum requirements, AMIT students can apply to participate in the clinical portion of the program during their junior and senior years. Sall said her clinical placements not only reinforced what she learned in class, but they also provided invaluable hands-on training on patient communication and different protocols, therapies and technologies.

“We try to get the students to different sites so they can see different types of machines because the type of machine and who manufactures it totally changes your workflow and how you use the camera, which is a big part of a technologist’s job,” Hug said.