Road to Radiography

I think I will probably comp my C-spine and L-spine on my next attempts at clinical. I changed up the way I’m placing my markers and it seems to work very well. I shot one of each of these exams in clinical today, and they both looked good, but I didn’t turn them in as comps. I want to shoot each of them one more time before I claim the comps. It may sound odd to some, but I don’t always claim a comp right away. When I know I’m going to have plenty of opportunities on certain exams, I get any required pre-comps logged and then start looking more critically at what I’m doing. On exams that don’t come up so frequently, I don’t take this approach. I make sure I get them as soon as possible. Those exams that don’t come up as often don’t seem to be the really difficult ones though, so there isn’t much to worry about when it comes to actually being competent. I bet I shot 30 or 40 4-view knee exams before I ever claimed my comp. I still don’t feel 100% competent with the lateral knee. It’s definitely not particularly easy with certain patients. Extremely large patients are the most difficult. It’s nearly impossible on some to tell when the knee is perfectly lateral. Knee exams are not hard to come by, so the opportunities are abundant.

Tomorrow morning, there are four barium enemas scheduled, so I might finish out my pre-comps (I only need two more) and then use the other two as confidence and competency builders. The barium enema is a common exam at my current clinical rotation, and I expect to see at least 20 more of them, if not more, during this rotation. I also have a fluoroscopy objective to complete this summer, so I will start working on that as well.

My clinical instructor stopped by for a visit today. I don’t get to see her that often, so it’s always nice when she stops by. I wasn’t spot tested on anything today, but that will be coming soon enough…

Tags: 3rd Semester, Clinical //