Sixty-five years after its inception, UNLV’s radiography program, housed within the School of Integrated Health Sciences, is widely regarded as the “gold standard” by its clinical partners.

The program's history underscores the school's role in keeping up with the medical needs of Nevada's growing population. UNLV’s radiography students and alumni are helping meet that need in hospitals and medical centers across Southern Nevada, building their skills in the classroom and through hands-on clinical experience.

“Knowing that this program has been around for 65 years and has impacted so many lives is amazing,” said Heidi Shelton, director of the radiography program. “And knowing that our program has only gotten stronger and has continued to thrive shows how important it has been to UNLV.”

Establishing an X-Ray Technician Program at UNLV

In 1960, local radiologists from Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital (now known as University Medical Center) urged university administrators to help fill the growing need for X-ray technicians in Clark County. William Carlson, who was dean of what then was called Nevada Southern University, launched a two-year radiology certificate program.

At that time, Clark County’s population had nearly tripled to 127,000 over the previous decade. The growth, along with a nationwide need for more medical imaging professionals, helped spur a partnership that UNLV has had with UMC since the Kennedy administration. And the radiography program — and the tricky way administrators gained approval — ultimately helped Nevada Southern break away from UNR, establishing UNLV as its own institution.

On Sept. 9, 1961, the Nevada Board of Regents formally approved the establishment of a program to train X-ray technicians at Nevada Southern. The handful of students admitted each semester would complete their didactic courses on campus while finishing their hands-on training under the guidance of local physicians at Southern Nevada Memorial.

Classes taught at Southern Nevada Memorial included darkroom chemistry and techniques, principles of radiographic exposure, radiographic film critique, and radiographic positioning.

Tuition was just $75 a semester.

By the late 1960s, professor Charles Jacobi, a nationally recognized X-ray educator, helped transform the two-year radiography program into a fully fledged bachelor’s degree.

In 1969, Nevada Southern University became UNLV, marking another step in the program’s growth. UNLV added new partnerships with local hospitals so radiography students could complete their clinical rotations there.

We spoke to three alumni from different decades to learn more about their student experiences, why they chose UNLV’s radiography program, and how, despite advances in technology, the core principles of the medical imaging profession remain the same.

Vicki Gooss, ’80, ’88

Vicki Gooss had been a staff technologist at Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center for less than three weeks when a massive electrical fire at the MGM Grand killed 85 people in November 1980, making it one of the deadliest hotel fires in U.S. history.

Hundreds more were transported to nearby Sunrise for medical care, where the soon-to-be graduate Gooss prepared for what would be the first mass casualty event of her career.

“It was very overwhelming; just an immense number of patients coming through,” she recalled. “Most of the injuries were smoke inhalation, and I probably took more chest X-rays in that timeframe than I ever have across my entire career. We also had orthopedic injuries from people who tried jumping to safety.”

Gooss completed a rigorous clinical schedule as a UNLV radiography student, working 40-hour weeks for seven consecutive months at Sunrise toward the end of her program.

“It’s not that way now, but back then it was quite a commitment to clinical time,” she said. “Sunrise hired me when I was a student in November [1980], but as soon as I fully graduated and passed my [credentialing exam], I would be a full-time registered technologist.”

Gooss credited her extensive clinical experience with helping prepare her for one of the darkest day's in the city's history. 

“I wouldn’t necessarily say we were emotionally prepared — because training doesn’t cover that aspect — but it definitely got us ready to handle our patients,” she said of the fire. “When you’re in the middle of it, adrenaline kicks in, and you just do what you need to do to work through it.”

Gooss would once again find herself working on the front lines of another mass casualty event after the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting on Oct. 1, 2017.

Forty-six years after she signed on, Gooss is still at Sunrise, now as the administrative director of imaging for Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center and Sunrise Children’s Hospital.

She and her team oversee the main imaging department at Sunrise, as well as a freestanding emergency department in Henderson and an outpatient diagnostics center near the main hospital.

“We average about 1,100 exams a day between CT, ultrasound, X-ray, MRI, special procedures, and nuclear medicine,” she said.

Gooss still has fond memories of her time as a UNLV student, when imaging professionals spent countless hours hand-developing their images in darkrooms.

“Now with digital imaging, you don't even have to worry about processing an image or storing film jackets,” she said. “Younger professionals don't know the world of pulling jammed film out of a processor because you're trying to save it and avoid exposing the patient to another X-ray. Now, it's all digital. You can pull an old image up and compare it right next to one taken today, and we never have to worry about lost films.”

Dr. Scott Scherr, ’97

A Southern California transplant who came to UNLV to play baseball, Dr. Scott Scherr discovered the radiography program in a university catalog while considering what to do after his baseball career ended.

Now, Scherr serves as the regional medical director for emergency services for TeamHealth and Sunrise Health System.

While he now works in management, overseeing teams of physicians, nurses, and front-line healthcare professionals for the Sunrise Hospital System, Scherr still values the opportunity to review a patient’s imaging.

“I always pride myself at looking at my own films,” he said. “And I have a really good relationship with my technologists. I respect their art and their skills, and I know that I can rely on them as an emergency medicine physician.”

Scherr was hired as an X-ray technologist at UMC after graduation. The fast-paced, and sometimes frantic, environment thrilled him and set him on his eventual path to medical school.

“Without having that exposure from the UNLV rad tech program, I’m not even sure that a career path as a physician would’ve ever crossed my mind,” he said.

Scherr said learning the ins and outs of imaging as a radiography student gives him an advantage as a physician. He works closely with his imaging technologists because they understand one another.

The stronger bond, he said, leads to better patient care.

Like Gooss, Scherr said technological advancements have greatly improved the imaging experience, but they’ve also made him nostalgic for the time when he was still new to the field; when, as a new graduate, he was required to push heavy carts of film into darkrooms for developing.

“Your film is only as good as your positioning and the technique you use. It’s a skill that we still use today,” Scherr said. “I grew up reading all my own films and tried to interpret them as an X-ray tech. I still do that.”

Heidi Shelton, ’05

Heidi Shelton has been director of UNLV’s radiography program for the past year, where she has tried to build on the program’s culture of empathy and compassion.

She understands that culture well.

After being diagnosed with an extremely rare bone cancer during her last semester as a UNLV student, Shelton wasn’t sure if she would even finish her degree.

“I asked myself if I should even keep going to school. But my program instructor said to me, ‘You’ve come too far. We’re not going to let you fail out of this program,’” she recalled. “And in the back of my head, I’m reminding myself that’s what we need to do for our students because some of them are going through some horrendous stuff.”

Shelton credited her classmates, her mentors (including Gooss), and the team at Sunrise Hospital for supporting her while she finished her degree in the midst of a cancer battle.

She sees the struggles her own students are living through, whether it’s the intense curriculum or the loss of a family member. Each experience, especially the difficult ones, gives them an opportunity to see the world in a new way.

“I can help our students see things more empathetically, not just technically,” Shelton said. “Our profession is very technical, and it can seem somewhat robotic. Lay here. Move here. Breathe here. But you also need to bring that empathetic and personal component to the job. And a lot of that just comes from having life experience.”

Shelton graduated from UNLV as the radiography field was transitioning to digital imaging. She began her collegiate career the same as Gooss and Scherr, spending hours developing images in a darkroom.

By the time she graduated, digital scanning was the norm.

“Back then, you didn't have as much flexibility with mistakes,” Shelton said. “But on the other hand, I was able to make that transition to digital imaging as a student. And I think that's helped me as an educator, because I’ve seen both worlds.”

It is critical for Shelton to stay on top of the latest technological advancements so her students are prepared for a world where artificial intelligence is already being incorporated into health care.

AI can be especially helpful when it comes to imaging, as existing algorithms can process gray scales that the human eye cannot comprehend.

“AI has already helped physicians identify areas that could be an issue, like a tumor, for example,” Shelton said. “The computer can identify that there’s a difference in the density of the tissue that the human eye might not be able to see.”

Even with the rapid advancements in technology, Shelton said the results mean nothing without quality radiologic technologists getting a proper scan in the first place.

“Our technologists have to approach each patient with more critical thinking, and I don’t really see AI replacing that human component that these patients need,” she said.

Shelton’s teaching philosophy can be traced back to her time as a student, when her UNLV community rallied behind her and compassion and empathy guided her through some of her darkest days.

As technology continues to advance, Shelton is confident that the human element remains essential to quality care.

“It still requires a technologist to create a good, quality image that the computer can analyze,” she said. “Because if you have a bad image, it doesn’t even matter.”