Road to Radiography

I got my first opportunity in clinical on Tuesday to do the small bowel exam. I have to get two pre-comps (one more now) before I can comp this procedure. It’s rather easy to perform, but this was the first one I have seen in this clinical rotation. Hopefully I’ll see some more before the end of the summer. The site was rather slow on Tuesday, so I didn’t get to log but five procedures, but I did miss quite a few procedures while I was doing the small bowel. That exam ran for a little over three hours in total.

We had a rather difficult test in RAD-122 today, and apparently the entire class scored below normal. Our instructor gave us the tests back and told us to take them home, re-write the questions we missed along with the correct answers and an explanation of the answer. When we turn that in on Monday, he will be giving us half credit for the questions we missed. I made an 83 on the test and should end up with a 91.5 after I get credit back, which will be ok. That will put my current average at a 93, so it looks like I’m going to have another course where I’m borderline between the A and B mark. We’ll see how it goes…

Tags: 3rd Semester, Clinical, RAD-122 by John Setzler
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I survived my first week back to school for the summer term. My schedule this summer is the most difficult I have had so far where time is concerned. I’m going to have to make some changes in my personal routine to cope with the additional time in class and clinical. That will take a little getting used to.

The video clip here is from the fireworks show at the Hickory Crawdads (Single-A minor league affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates) baseball game on Friday night. I’m still having fun with the video camera :)

I have my first test in RAD-122 on Wednesday, and it covers a good bit of material, but I think I’m going to be ready for it… hopefully. This instructor is the department head and his test questions are often quite tricky. I got my first B since I started back to school in his RAD-121 class during the spring semester. I was close to an A, but didn’t quite make it. My average was somewhere between 91 and 93, but I don’t know exactly what it was.

I’m out of school today for the memorial day holiday, but I have my normal clinical rotation tomorrow…

Tags: 3rd Semester, RAD-122, Video Clips by John Setzler
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As the photo may indicate, I’m going to be tied up for the rest of the summer it seems. The way our summer semester works is just a bit outside of the norm. Instead of the regular 16 weeks, we have a 10-week semester. During this 10 weeks, I have two classes plus clinicals. Our RAD-122 (Radiographic Imaging II) is held during the first five weeks and the RAD-131 (Physics) is held during the second five weeks. In a nutshell, we’re covering 16 weeks worth of material in a five-week period twice during the summer term.

We jumped right into the imaging class today. We had nearly 6 hours of lecture covering technique chart development, automatic exposure control, and radiographic film. We didn’t quite finish the section on radiographic film, but we’ll be finishing that up in class on Wednesday and having our first test next Wednesday. Oddly enough, we’re out of class on Monday for Memorial Day.

I start my summer clinical session in an outpatient center tomorrow morning at 8am. Tomorrow is going to be another one of those really long days for me. My clinical runs from 8 until 3:30 and then I have to go to work around 4. I have one sports photography assignment at 4pm and another one at 7pm, so it will be around 10pm at the earliest until I find my way back home. Days like that make it very difficult to get any useful studying done. Luckily, I have a long weekend to make up for it before my first test.

As of this time, I haven’t organized my documentation for this clinical session yet, but I intend to do that this evening. In the next day or two I’ll have my goals list for the summer clinical in order. I already know that I’m hoping to get a majority of my fluoro comps completed. I’m very happy with the opportunity to be in an outpatient center at this point because we just finished up our fluoro stuff in lab at school at the end of the spring semester, and I’m ready to start working on comps for those procedures.

Hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow night at some point to post some preliminary thoughts on the new clinical site…

Tags: 3rd Semester, Clinical, RAD-122 by John Setzler
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I’m a little over half way through my two-week break before the summer semester starts. I have enjoyed the time off so far, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the week as well. Last week, I visited the Kangaroo Conservation Center in Dawsonville, Georgia. The above video clip shows some of that place. It was really interesting and there are over 300 kangaroos on site, as well as other Australian wildlife.

When I start back to class next Monday, I’ll be taking Radiographic Imaging II (RAD-122), Radiographic Physics I (RAD-131) and my third round of clinicals (RAD-171). My clinical rotation will be in an out-patient imaging center and I’ll be in from 8-330 on Tuesday and Thursday, and from 8-12 on Fridays for the duration of the 10-week summer session. I have all of my books ready to go. I purchased “Digital Radiography and PACS by Christi Carter and Beth Veale” on Amazon.com and saved about $8 from the school bookstore price. I also purchased “Radiologic Science for Technologists by Stewart C. Bushong” used on Amazon.com and saved about $50 from the school bookstore price. I purchased the workbook that goes along with this book new from the school bookstore earlier this week. Fortunately, my total book cost for the summer semester was about $110 with the savings I got from Amazon and buying a used book. I’ll probably start reading in these books tonight or tomorrow to get a jump start on the semester. I don’t have a syllabus for either class yet, so it would be hit and miss as to where I should start. Maybe I should just enjoy the break :)

Here’s another video clip from the trip to Georgia… This is the Fountain of Rings at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park…

Tags: 3rd Semester, RAD-122, RAD-131 by John Setzler
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