Choose a Career in Nuclear Medicine!

Thank you for your interest in our Hillsborough Community College’s Nuclear Medicine Technology Program (HCC’s NMT).

If you have the right chemistry, consider a career in Nuclear Medicine, a specialty that uses radioactive materials to diagnose and treat illnesses such as cancer and dysfunctional thyroid disease. Technologists prepare and inject radio-pharmaceutical materials, position patients for imaging procedures to examine for heart, liver, lung, brain and kidney disease and work up diagnostic data for doctors.

HCC's NMT program is offered on the Dale Mabry Campus, and requires a full-time two year commitment. Classes and clinical internships are offered only during the daytime. The program consists of a total of 75 credit hours, which includes 14 required prerequisite credit hours. The following required prerequisite courses must be completed prior to submitting your application; they include ENC1101 Freshman English, BSC1085 Anatomy & Physiology I with BSC1085L Lab, CHM1025 Modern Chemistry with CHM1025 Lab (or any higher level four credit college Chemistry with Lab), and MGF1119 Intro Math with Application (or any transferable general education mathematics course). Please note: Effective for the February 15, 2013 deadline for the Fall 2013 start, new prerequisite admission requirements must be met (see changes under COURSES category of the program’s menu).

A new class of 20 students enters the program each fall term (August); the application deadline date is February 15th, of the year that you plan to enter. Because the program is a limited access program, the student selection process is primarily based on an applicant’s calculated GPA ranking of the required prerequisite courses, and secondarily, by overall GPA ranking. The top twenty applicants are given first opportunity to accept their seat in the program, should any of them decline their seats, an alternate (ranked by GPA) will be offered the available seat, this process continues until all twenty are filled.

It is recommended that you meet with an HCC Student Advisor or Counselor to evaluate any prior college course work to determine transferability into the program. Total program estimated costs for both years (75 credit hours) including tuition, books, lab fees, lab coats, entrance physical exam, national certification exam fees, state (FL) licensure fees, and radiation exposure badge monitoring service are approximately $10,150 (Florida Resident) and $30,250 (non-Florida Resident).

NOTE: For additional important NMT program and admission information visit the Health, Wellness and Sports Technology Homepage and click on Health Science Department Handbook.

Larry Gibson, NMT Program Manager

The Nuclear Medicine Technology Program at HCC is accredited by the Joint Review Commitee on Educational Programs in Nuclear Medicine Technology.

FACTS

• An estimated 10 to 12 million nuclear medicine imaging and therapeutic procedures are performed each year in the US
• Nuclear Medicine procedures are unique, safe and cost-effective
• There are nearly 100 Nuclear Medicine imaging procedures available today
• Nuclear Medicine uniquely provides information about both the function and structure of virtually every major organ system within the body
• Nuclear Medicine procedures are among the safest diagnostic imaging tests available
• The amount of radiation in a Nuclear Medicine procedure is comparable to that of an x-ray
• Nuclear Medicine procedures are painless and do not require anesthesia
• Children commonly undergo Nuclear Medicine procedures to evaluate bone pain, injuries, infection or kidney and bladder function
• There are approximately 2,700 full-time equivalent Nuclear Medicine physicians and 14,000 certified Nuclear Medicine technologists nationwide