What Our Students Love Most about the AIMS Experience

Here at AIMS we always strive to offer the best possible learning environment. Last month we conducted a survey among some of our current and former students in the hopes of finding out more about their experiences at AIMS Education.

The feedback we received has been mostly positive. This article attempts to summarize all of their responses. It will give you a better idea of why people choose to work in the allied healthcare field and what our students enjoyed about the AIMS experience.

Allied Healthcare

It takes a certain kind of personality to work in the healthcare field. Jobs require a lot of discipline and focus as well as an ability to follow instructions. Since allied healthcare professionals typically interact with patients, they are often empathetic people who enjoy helping others. Melissa, one of our graduates, summarizes it by saying, “It's something I've always wanted to do. I've had a passion to help people ever since I was little. It's a rewarding feeling.”

In addition to that feeling of doing something meaningful for a living, others point to the field’s practicality. Pay obviously depends on a variety of factors (working hours, type of setting, level of education, field of expertise, etc...), but for certain allied health professions the salary potential can reach almost $90,000.

Students who attend traditional colleges often find the amount of debt they incur overwhelming. This is another factor that draws students to the allied health field. Allied health training programs are significantly shorter than 4 year colleges and the costs are usually lower as well. The cost-to-income ratio is something that a lot of our students had in mind when they chose AIMS.

After learning about our students’ motivations to go into allied healthcare, we asked them to briefly describe their experiences at our school. We were happy to find out that most students came away with a positive experience. They appreciated the balance between theoretical foundations and hands-on practice that many of our programs offer. Other areas that students praised included the small class sizes and the opportunity to do externships.

The fact that many of our instructors are qualified doctors with significant experience in the field was also considered a major plus. Students also appreciated the instructors' willingness to go out of their way in helping them. In particular, there seemed to be universal praise for Dr. Swetha Sama and her teaching abilities. When discussing Dr. Swetha, Teresa said, "Dr. Swetha is the best. She goes out of her way to make us understand." Dr. Swetha Sama is the program director for the Cardiovascular and Echocardiography programs at AIMS Education. Perhaps most importantly, our students felt qualified enough to start a job without additional training once they graduated from AIMS.

We were pleased to see how ambitious many of our students are. Most of them plan to seek (or have already done so) additional credentials after graduating. The majority of our ultrasound students plan to sit for an ARDMS examination, a globally recognized certificate in the field of sonography.

We try to help both our current students, and our alumni, by getting them in touch with potential employers and institutions that provide internships. A few of them have already found jobs through their externship sites.

Most of our current students appear to be optimistic that the training they are receiving at AIMS will benefit them in their job pursuits. Viviana strongly believes that she will be able to "find a job quickly because the training doesn't depend upon the school only. It also depends on one's determination and responsibility." A few of them have even found jobs through their externship sites already.

Overall we were very pleased with the results from the survey. As an institute of higher education there are always areas that can be improved upon. However, the fact that most of our students are satisfied with their educational experiences and are confident in their future job prospects, shows that we are moving in the right direction.