Road to Radiography

Wow… it’s been busy lately around here. I haven’t forgotten about my blog here and I really hate that I haven’t been able to post more regularly. When April rolls around, my work schedule gets very busy. That, on top of the school schedule, doesn’t leave me much time.

I’m in the middle of my final exams for the semester. I took the finals for the RAD-112 class today. I had the positioning exam which consisted of the GI tract and the urinary/biliary systems. I made a 99 on that exam. I also took the written exam which was cumulative from the entire semester. I’m not sure what I made on it yet, but I think I did well. I needed to make an 87 on it to get an A in the class for the semester. I should have reached that mark. Tomorrow, I have the cumulative written exam for the RAD-121 Imaging class and the final lab exam for that class as well. My grades in RAD-121 aren’t as high as I had hoped they would be, so I may end up with my first B since I returned to school this semester. This may be the semester where I stop having to worry about maintaining a 4.0 GPA. It’s nice, of course, to have a 4.0, but losing it won’t be the end of the world.

Clinical has been going well also. My current clinical site is, by far, the best I have seen so far. This hospital environment is staffed by the best techs I have met so far. Each of them is extremely qualified, and most of them have been very helpful to me in my efforts to learn this trade. My requirements for this semester were to log 300 procedures and 22 master competencies. I have logged over 500 procedures and managed to collect 34 comps. The extra comps I have accumulated will carry over to the summer semester, where I’m required to get 15, so I only need 3 more to get to that mark. My summer semester clinical rotation will be in another outpatient center. I should be able to get started on my fluoroscopy comps and pick up a few others as well during the 10-week session. I’ll be in clinical for 2.5 days per week this summer.

I’m also at a point in my program where I’m starting to think about where I would like to work when I graduate. So far, I have been in the hospital, outpatient center, and orthopedic office environments. Each of them definitely has its good and bad points, but I’m not sure where I want to go yet. Part of me wants to go into the hospital environment because of the large variety of procedures I would see there, including trauma, OR, and special procedures. The other part of me wants to work in an orthopedic office because of my personal interest in sports medicine.

This is my last week of school for the semester. I’ll finish my exams and clinical this week and then get two full weeks off before diving into the second round of the imaging class and then the physics of radiography. I’m going to enjoy a little time off…

Tags: 2nd Semester, Clinical, RAD-112, RAD-121 by John Setzler
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My second semester of Radiography school is coming to a close, and I find myself thinking about what I want to do with this education when I graduate in May of 2009. In my first year of clinical rotations, I have worked in an outpatient imaging center, two hospitals, and one orthopedic office. Those three environments pretty much cover the complete spectrum of x-ray work.

I see certain advantages of working in each of these environments. What I need is some feedback from people who work in the field and other students who have spent more time thinking about what they want to do with their education in radiography. If you read this blog, please take a few minutes when you get a chance and let me know what your opinions are on the subject of the various working environments for radiographic technicians.

Tags: 2nd Semester, Miscellaneous by John Setzler
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I had a really interesting experience again today in clinical. Just as my day was winding down, we had an order come through for a 4-year old child. The order said that the child had fallen down some stairs, and there were a LOT of x-ray requests on the order… Chest, Ribs, Pelvis, T-Spine, and L-Spine. That seemed like a lot to me, but I’m just a student and don’t know much :) I’m fairly confident that when this sort of exam comes up on a child this age, there is some type of concern about abuse, and the doctors are probably checking for that. We set up for the exams and I went to the lobby in Radiology to get the patient.

Once I got to the lobby, I found out rather quickly that I had a challenge coming. The 4-year-old patient was waiting with his mother and younger brother, and none of them spoke any English. I have been learning Spanish, but I’m FAR from conversational. One of the most important Spanish phrases I have learned is “Yo soy un estudiante de Espanol.” Telling them that I’m a student of the Spanish language should let them know that I probalby don’t know much, but I intend to try. So, I introduced myself as clearly as I could and tried to start a conversation with the 4-year-old. That part went fairly well. He told me his name and age without much problem. Since his mother was holding a much younger brother who was sleeping, I asked the child to come with me while his mother waited behind, which wasn’t received with as much interest as the name and age exchange. I told him that all I wanted to do was take his picture and that it would not hurt. I held out my hand and said “conmigo” (with me), and he held out his hand and I took him to the x-ray exam room. I showed him the x-ray equipment and moved it around some, trying to describe what he was seeing and what we would be doing (in my best elementary Spanish). At this point, I really believe I had gained his trust quite well. He wasn’t complaining. At this point, I did need some assistance from the other techs to help hold the child in position. This is where we normally run into problems with children, and we expect it. Being held in an unnatural position by strangers in a strange environment will carry its on type of psychological trauma for a child that age. Luckily, he did very well with minimal crying and practically no struggle. When we were finished, we re-dressed him and I took him back to his mother and brother in the waiting room. The child had a big grin on his face when his mother asked him if he liked getting his picture made… He told her he had fun!

This is not some sort of huge success for me, but I was happy with the outcome. Pediatrics is one specific area I have considered in the future, and experiences like this one, even though it’s rater rare, reinforce that for me.

I do intent to further my studies in Spanish in the future as well. I started taking Spanish at the school last year, and I completed two semesters of it before I gave it up. I really enjoyed the class and the teacher was great as well, but the learning pace was painfully slow. I decided to give the Rosetta Stone software a try, and I’m really enjoying that so far, even thought I haven’t had a lot of time to spend with it lately. I guess that is one drawback of taking the self-paced learning as opposed to a classroom environment. The strict schedule of the class would keep me more on track and not allow me to push it aside. I would not, however, have time to take the classes while I’m in the radiography program between those class/clinical hours and work. That being the case, I’m going to work my way through the Rosetta Stone program and then re-evaluate what I want to do with my Spanish education after I graduate from the Radiography program. I think being conversational in Spanish would be very advantageous to me in this field…

Tags: 2nd Semester, Clinical by John Setzler
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I encountered a rather tough situation in clinical this week. This situation also gave me some first-hand understanding of the Patient’s Bill of Rights.

Friday morning when I arrived at my clinical site, the first procedure I participated in was a barium enema. As a side note to this procedure, we were using Hypaque instead of Barium Sulfate. The patient had a colostomy as a result of a gunshot wound from several years ago, so barium might have introduced a risk of extravasation. This procedure was being performed as a prelude to the patient having surgery to repair the lower GI tract and help him get rid of the colostomy so he might be able to function normally again. The patient was a 26-year old male.

We prepared the room and brought in the patient. We explained the procedure. This was the beginning of the problems we had. Apparently no one prior to us had given him any idea of what this procedure involved and why he was having it. He was totally in the dark. He got quite nervous when we were describing the procedure. We tried to reassure him and help him understand that breathing techniques would make the procedure easier. He never seemed to understand and never relaxed much before the exam started.

When we tipped the patient, that’s when the complaining really started. Everything was properly lubed, but the patient couldn’t seem to endure the discomfort. The radiologist came in and we started filling the patient with Hypaque and his complaints continued. The complaints got to the point where the radiologist stopped and asked the patient if he wanted us to stop the procedure. When the patient was presented with this opportunity, he immediately said YES. The radiologist told him that not completing this procedure would keep him from being able to have his surgery. The patient still wanted the procedure stopped, so we stopped.

The patient has the right to refuse or stop any procedure.

I was disappointed that the procedure wasn’t completed. He’ll have a decision to make now. He either lives with the colostomy or he repeats the procedure again. For me, it’s a no-brainer. A colostomy is not something you would want to live with by choice when there is a better alternative. I also thought we were very effective at explaining the procedure along with the benefits of having it. I think this patient’s doctor will probably have a good talk with him and he’ll be back for the barium (or Hypaque) enema in the future…

Tags: 2nd Semester, Clinical by John Setzler
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