GVSU approves new health majors

 

 
ALLENDALE, Mich. -- The Board of Trustees at Grand Valley State University has approved restructuring an existing health professions major, with separate emphases, into three distinct majors.
 
Board members on July 20 approved three new majors: Radiation Therapy, Radiologic and Imaging Sciences, and Diagnostic Medical Sonography. They had been emphases under the Radiologic and Imaging Sciences major.
 
Roy Olsson, dean of the College of Health Professions, said these new majors come at a time when there is a movement across the country toward undergraduate degrees and mid-level clinical practitioners professions. “Grand Valley has the opportunity to become one of a select few national leaders in radiologic and imaging sciences through the implementation of a series of undergraduate degrees that encompass a full range of specialties in diagnostic and therapeutic modalities,” Olsson said.
 
Each of these three programs has an enrollment of about 30 students; they are all secondary admittance programs. Olsson added that these positions typically pay well and there is a demand. Statistics show the number of people needing radiation therapy is expected to increase. Employment of radiation therapists is expected to grow by about 25 percent through 2016.
 
Grand Valley is the only university in Michigan to offer diagnostic medical sonography as a bachelor’s degree program, and the only university in the country to offer pediatric echocardiography as part of a bachelor’s degree program.