Nuclear Medicine Advance Associate (NMAA)
Core concepts
The NMAA domain covers the advanced-practice support role: patient care, radiopharmacy handling, quality control, radiation safety, and assisting with therapeutic and diagnostic procedures under supervision. Expect questions on regulatory limits, contamination control, and documentation.
Know ALARA and the three dose-reduction pillars: time, distance, and shielding. Inverse-square behavior means doubling distance cuts exposure to one quarter. Understand dosimeters, survey meters, wipe tests, and package surveys, and which records must be kept and for how long.
Radiopharmacy and safety
Be able to describe generator elution, assay of activity in a dose calibrator, and the difference between geometric and physical decay corrections. Know spill response: contain, survey, decontaminate, document, and report per policy. Understand that sealed-source and byproduct-material rules differ, and that a written directive is required for certain therapies.
Patient care and traps
Questions test pregnancy and lactation screening, informed consent, extravasation management, and handoff communication. Watch for items that blur roles: the NMAA supports but does not independently interpret images or prescribe therapy.
Rule of thumb
For any exposure question, apply time, distance, shielding in that order, then check inverse square. If the distance triples, exposure falls to one ninth.