5 Perks of Being a Radiology Technologist

Welcome to another insightful episode of "A Couple of Rad Techs Podcast"! Today, host Chaundria Singleton delves into the lesser-known yet incredibly rewarding perks of being a registered radiologic technologist. With 22 years of hands-on experience, Chaundria unveils five hidden benefits that make this career pathway not only unique but also fulfilling. From the profound influence on patient care and the variety of daily tasks, to forging close patient connections and gaining hands-on experience with advanced technology, Chaundria covers it all. And let’s not forget the strong job security and flexibility that comes with this role. Whether you're a seasoned professional, a student, or someone considering a career in radiologic technology, this episode is packed with valuable insights and personal stories that highlight the impact and opportunities within this field. So buckle up and join us as we explore these hidden gems in the life of a radiologic technologist!

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Transcript

Chaundria: 0:00

today we are talking about five hidden perks of being a radiologic technologist. If you've already seen my last video or listened to the podcast on busting myths about what we do as radiologic technologists, I know you learned a lot, but today we're going to talk about something different and it is the perks of working as a radiologic technologist. Yes, I have been a radiologic technologist registered that is, and I'm going to talk about why that's important to say registered radiologic technologist. is because I've been doing it for 22 years and I've seen a lot of things and maybe you have too, but you just didn't know what they were. So we're going to talk all about those perks of being a radiologic technologist and be sure to let me know in the comments if you've known about those perks, if you're experiencing those perks by being a registered radiologic technologist, or maybe you're a parent whose child is a registered radiologic technologist and specializes in other modalities. But if you haven't already, check it out. Be sure to check out that last video I did busting the myths about radiologic technologist and MRI technology. Many people have a lot of myths out there and some of you are healthcare workers. So let's get into today's video because I'm going to begin by talking about stories, intriguing facts about what radiologic technologists. Those five hidden perks are number one, the influence we have on patient care as a radiologic technologist. When we are registered, there's an impact whether you're registered or not registered. Number two, the variety of daily tasks that we do. Many people, one of those myths is that we just sit back and press buttons, but no, we do not. We have daily tasks and it also depends on what you're doing as a registered radiology technologist. Each individual study requires a different task and knowledge. Number three, close patient connections. I'm going to tell you, I got some of my patients numbers in my phone, and it's not because I violated HIPAA. So let's get that out of the way. It's because I have such a deep connection with them that they want to take me out to lunch. So, you know, I always am looking for a new friend. I do make this connection with my patients. I always have for 22 years and 22 years later, I'm still getting invited to lunch by my patients and their families. I've even gone unfortunately to my patients funerals. The family has kept in touch with me. That is the kind of connection we have. People think that we just take an X-ray and an MRI, they're out of the door. No, that's not the case. Many times my coworkers have to tell me you and the patient need to get out of the room talking finish your conversation out of the room That's just how I deal with my patients and a lot of us technologists do as well. So it's never, Oh, you guys only have them for a minute or so. Well then why are they taking me out to lunch and got me in the phone ready to invite me over for family dinner? Number four, hands on experience with advanced technology. Yeah, we do deal with it. high level machines and computer systems that do amazing things for the diagnoses of illnesses and to help doctors be able to diagnose things. So we've got to know how to operate the machines, how to manipulate them, understand the science behind them and the technology as we work alongside doctors who are radiologists, as well as. engineers and physicists. And technology is changing. Many of you in many jobs are experiencing AI and other things. So we're going to talk a little bit about this. This is going to be a 20 minute long conversation. So buckle up. Let's have fun. If you're watching this, be sure to go to the comments and let me know. I need to know what do you need to know? Did I answer your questions? Do you have more questions? Let's get it. Number five, final perk. Strong job security and flexibility. Who doesn't want that? I've been blessed as a registered radiology technologist to never have been without a job. I've had too many jobs to where my husband's like, have you seen your calendar lately? You have too many jobs. You're, I've worked at five and six places at one time. Yes. That's a lot of jobs. And also the flexibility. Do you not want flexibility where you work? I know I sure do. And that is one of the reasons I chose to go into healthcare and specifically into radiologic technology. Perk number one, influence on patient care. I have nurse friends that have said, I wish I would've went to school for radiology, I wouldn't have to spend all day with patients. I think people only think of one thing that they see on TV. It is that we just come in in the ER and x ray, boom, take a picture and we're out. That's part of our job, some of us. And then there are other facets to it. We're going to just talk this conversation about radiologic technology. We have a little over 10, 11 modalities that I could talk about that I am going to talk about. So be sure to subscribe because you don't want to miss me talking about all these modalities that you have the option to work in with great job security and flexibility. Okay. So how do we have such an influence on patient care? Your doctor orders a x ray or some type of x ray. They order a small bowel series. They order a histosalpinogram. They order a skull series. Or it's standing feet x rays. Now that's different. That's not a general x ray. Standing knees, bilateral knees, sunrise view of knees. There are specific reasons your doctor wants the registered radiologic technologist to do that view instead of any other view. Those views and x rays are not easy to acquire without proper training. And why do I say that? Because in order to influence patient care, as a registered radiologic technologist, we have to know body composition of each patient. the patient's ability to move and adjust to how we need in order to get the body part in position to allow the doctor to be able to see. Let's take for instance, a lumbar spine x ray. There are a few views you can do. This is a straight on view where you take an x ray straight on of the lumbar spine. Great. If you need a lateral patient stands to the side, arms out like this. And then they're able to get in and see from the sideways. Now there are a couple other views that doctors need to see because patients can have fractures. You've got a lot of ribs in there. You got tissue all around some people, different sizes. You've got organs inside of there. You got gas in there. Gas. Yes. Gas. You have bowels in there. There's a lot of stuff. And then you got the lungs going up and down, moving, moving, moving. how many of you breathe like this? And how many of you breathe like this? Everybody breathes differently, but what we need is no motion during that picture. We don't need the body to be moving. We don't need the organs to be moving. There are certain breathing instructions that are given in a certain way per x ray. You wouldn't give the same breathing instructions to the patient for a chest that you will for a lumbar spine, for an abdominal series. These are things you learn by going to school. And we're going to talk about that later, how long you go to school to be a registered radiologic technologist. And I keep saying this for a reason registered. I'm just not giving long titles to our job to seem important, but there are people out there taking your x rays because they, they really can press buttons and they take an x ray and, Boom. They got everything on there, but all we needed was the spine. We didn't need the lungs. We didn't need your breast exposed to radiation. We didn't need your pelvis exposed. We were just getting the T spine. But they clip it because they don't know anatomy. They just know how to press a button. That's not a registered radiologic technologist. And that is important to influence patient care, because what we do when you are not a trained radiologic technologist that is registered and has two to four years of education and clinical training, I'm going to talk about later, the things we have to do in order to keep up our licenses. Yes, we are licensed. You influence patient care either poorly or you influence it on a positive scale. Depending on your education, and your ability to take even x rays. And these are very important because we are still exposing people to radiation. Many times, unfortunately, we have seen in the 22 years of doing radiology, patients have to come back to get x rays because the untrained person, maybe at a doctor's office, who was not a registered radiologic technologist, took their x ray and clipped what the doctor wanted to see or did not do an oblique of the lumbar to the proper degrees. There are certain degrees you have to turn people in order for the spinous processes to look a certain way and open up the spine on an x ray. You would only know that if you went to school and became a registered radiologic technologist. Let me know in the comments. Do you know how many degrees you're supposed to turn in order to get those disc spaces open on an x ray? It's very important. Otherwise, the x ray oblique, you've radiated the person improperly for no reason. You send over images, delay patient care, which could harm the patient. depending on what the diagnosis is. So this is how we can impact a patient and influence patient care, either for the good or for the bad. And we get to do that for the good because we have been trained. We know the proper angulation degrees of the machine. We know the proper angulation of degree for the body along with the machine. We know how much radiation to give to the patient to the proper degree. So as not to cause harm, a oath that we take to expose people to the lowest amount of radiation as possible. And it's not to rely on a digital machine to do that. We actually know how to calculate based on patient's body habitus. we learned that in school, we don't rely on a machine, just plug in a number and boom, Digital x ray allows us to be able to manipulate images, window and width, but the radiation exposure is still calculated in the machine, which is saved in that patient's data. Each patient is monitored. Every technologist is monitored as far as the radiation that they've gotten over a lifetime. So it's important that we influence patient care in a positive way. And that's why our job is registered radiologic technologists is so important. Quality of work when it comes to even x rays is so important. Imagine if you were doing a small bowel series or a barium enema. drank the contrast with the barium enema. They have to also put the contrast through the rectum area. And then if the radiologist wants to give air along with that, imagine they drink all that stuff. All the contrast is injected into the rectum. They're feel really well. The radiologist then tells the technologist to take the needed x rays. After they did live fluoro. Imagine if the person drank all this stuff. How would this influence patient care if you aren't able to provide proper angulation to get that colon. Everybody's colon is different when you add air and contrast in it. Some people's stuff is twisted up, some is all down, and some people's really long. Some people's overlap, like you'll have all over each other looking like it's tied up. I mean, it can be a lot and you have to know how to get that. And then people are full with all that contrast that they drank and come up in air. You've got to know how to get those pictures quickly and get them accurately because the radiologist is over there waiting because they've done all this work this patient has prepped, they drank all of this contrast, taken off of work, and they obviously have something going on gastrointestinally. And if you do not get good quality imaging, how have you impacted or influenced patient care poorly? That is what we are trained to do, is impact it in a positive way by quality imaging, not just, imaging, quality imaging. Number two perk, a variety of daily tasks. There are multiple exams that we do as registered radiologic technologists. I'm going to mention a few. Give you food for thought. Many people just see that we do portable machines. We push around portable machines on the TV shows, and we go into the ER, park it, put something behind their back and say, x-ray. That's one of the ways that we take images of patients. The other multiple ways x rays are done and things that are done in diagnostic imaging is we work in the operating room as well. We get to work alongside surgeons, surgical technologists, nurses and others in the operating room to give live fluoroscopy views of what the doctor is doing. If you know about lumbar spinal surgeries, knee surgeries, any of those things, Anytime they're in an operating room and they're placing screws, they're doing fusions of spines, anything that requires where the doctor needs to see live video X ray of this particular surgery live, they're going to be utilizing a registered radiologic technologist. And we're in there as long as the doctor needs, and they are dependent upon us where we are there to capture the images exactly how they need. Like you get to learn each surgeon, what views they're going to need. They don't even have to tell you, like they don't have to tell their surgical tech which tools they're going to need when they work. They don't even, we know our job. They rely on us to get the views in the OR that are needed. We're not going to do the same views on a lumbar that we're going to do in diagnostic x ray or in a portable. Totally different type of x ray. And we learn all of this. I had to learn it in school. I had to learn a multiple ways. Back then we did IVPs which was take a series of timed X rays. X rays to watch contrast that we injected into the patient go from their kidneys down to their bladder and watch it fill up. That was like an hour long study. We did scoliosis series. Patients are dependent on that. They are dependent on getting this surgery to correct their scoliosis. as a registered radiology technologist, it is way more than shooting chest X-rays on a portable in a er. We are in every aspect. If you think about anything in the hospital, radiology is right there. There's a wide skill set that is needed for a diagnostic x ray technologist. When you work in a hospital and you may do a lot of different exams, x rays of things, but when you work in an orthopedics office, working for orthopedic doctors, that's a totally different type of x ray anybody that's ever worked in orthopedics, those doctors usually have specific x rays per doctor because they're doing surgery on wrist. on feet, on ankles, on toes, on fingers, on wrist, these little bones that are so different from other structures in the body. So these doctors are dependent on certain type of x rays. I talked to earlier about weight bearing feet x rays. we usually take an x ray person, just put their foot up on an x ray table in the hospital. You take the picture to see if there's fracture. When there's an orthopedic doctor that needs to do surgery. Most people stand on their feet all day, right? Well, most of those doctors will order standing. x rays of the feet because they need to see how that foot lays and falls, how that fracture looks, how that body holds up on that foot before they go in and do surgery based off somebody laying down. That's not your natural way of that foot being. those are things that you just don't know when you press buttons and you really don't know why you're doing it. We know why we're doing certain things. And that is way more important. than just doing them. Hope you agree on that. Perk number three, close patient connections. I hear all the time from my nurse friends, I wish I went to school for radiology. We have to deal with our patients for 12 hours, sometimes 24 hours. You guys just get them in and get them out. So not true. I'm only speaking for radiologic technology. Yes, we do sometimes have patients that we never see again. come in, we do their x ray, they leave. That is normal. But we also work with cancer centers. We work with people who come from nursing homes. We work in a hospital where patients are patients there are multiple times when I was doing x rays that I would do Portable x rays, multiple x rays on patients were in the hospital for a longer periods of time and every day we had to go up and do a x ray on whatever this body part was to be able to follow up before they could be discharged and you start to get a relationship with them and in radiology, you have to have a relationship with people. I don't care what modality you're in. You have to have a relationship with people because people are scared in the hospital. I don't care if you're a nurse, if you're respiratory. You have to create a patient connection in order for them to take your instructions so you can give good quality patient care. So you can give good quality patient care. You have to create a connection with that patient. They have to know you care. They have to know that you are there for more than just to press a button and take your x ray. Sometimes we do have to get in and out, but we still create a close connection with many of those patients. I've been taken out to lunch several times by my patients, my patients that give me your number. We got to keep in touch and they text me. I, I have a patient for years. I don't even remember when I met her. She texts me every morning. God loves me. Every morning, Jesus loves me. And I, you know what? She's she is the sweetest lady, sweetest lady. We talked for over an hour after her MRI. And she said, I got to get your number. You're my friend. Now you're not going to get rid of me. And I was like, well, you're not going to get rid of me either. Those are the things that 22 years I've been invited to people's family functions, baby showers. I go into people's high school graduations. I'm just that kind of person anyway though. I just ran a story on my video. What is the nicest gift a patient has given you? I've had patients come and buy lunch for the whole department because we made their experience in radiology. So wonderful. I've had them grab my scrub jacket and put money in it and take off running. People are just so appreciative of what we do as radiologic technologists. And. It's so heartwarming to be able to really focus on what we do in healthcare as registered radiologic technologists and medical imaging professionals that I want to use this perk number three to really highlight our profession and what we bring to patient connections. We are not a one stop shop and you never see anybody again. If you ever think about getting in this profession or you're in this profession, if someone's made you feel like, Oh, you guys really don't help patients. You really don't get to see patients. You don't have that much impact on pay. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. And I want you to find, go deep and figure out in your career, either whether it was a student when you were a student or as a pay technologist, when a patient expressed gratitude, because I get it in my comments all the time from patients. Thank you so much for what you all do. We know you're not recognized that much in the radiology field, but I want to take the time in your comments to let you know. We appreciate you. You helped my father get through his radiation therapy. You helped my child get through their CT scan, their x ray series, their scoliosis series. I could go on and on and I'm sure you could too. Perk number four, let's wind this puppy down. Hands on experience with advanced technology. Oh my goodness. Yes. We get to work with a lot of cool technology. We have opportunities to do cutting edge technology. I remember early in my career when PACS Picture Archive Systems was just coming out. And is it Picture Archive Communication Systems? I think that's what the C is. I missed that. But PACS was coming out and this was for us to get everything, you know, digital, online, everything. And everybody was like, Oh! And I remember all the different companies that were coming out with their own PACS systems and I got a chance to get experience on a lot of those different machines and get PACS administrator experience because back then there were no PACS administrators. Everyone was a super user and could get in and manipulate things. So that's how I learned how to manipulate the PACS system to figure out when there was an issue, be able to help my fellow technologists fix the issue. And then we started getting super users because the hospitals just started growing and the PACS system started really growing and you needed people that were dedicated to just doing that. And hence, that's how we have PACS administrators, informatics, technology is really advancing our profession and it's not taking away from the technology side. It's actually, enhancing our skills because MRI CT has really personally, I've seen it just grow and go to a whole nother level, which has been amazing for the profession. MRI scans, usually, you know, you probably weren't that busy. You might have two texts all day long. You end at five. Really, that's now I'm seeing all these NGO studies. I remember NGO studies started coming in, MRI got faster and faster and faster. Now they're up to like a seven T machine, probably more in research, but not on humans. Three T machines now on humans, three Tesla. It's very powerful. And research can do more. It's just amazing what technology has done. CT scanning is so fast. I remember working on a mobile CT scanner before. So many different things. And the skills continue to advance for us. So my encouragement as the technology advances, we have remote scanning now. About 10 or 15 years ago when they were doing remote scanning and they were remoting in when I was doing clinical applications into the facilities I was in and that was just so cool and I knew it was going to go somewhere and look at it now they have Different remote sites where people can scan remotely and it's just going to grow from there. So professional development. I appreciate the opportunities that we have through different organizations and through yourselves to be able to advance yourself used to be a time you waited on your company to give you cross training to give you extra skills. Nowadays, there are so many opportunities out there for students to be able or for technologists to be able to advance their own careers through professional development. Professional development is getting that hands on experience. on technology, getting out there to conferences, getting out there to different jobs. Because this is the one thing that I said, this is a perk. We have the ability to experience all of this technology and advancement and have it advance our careers. But sometimes you do have to move to another facility or hospital in order to get that experience, right? Your, your one place may not have everything. You know, I've had to work at different hospitals to get a certain demographic experience, to get more cardiac experience, to get more pediatric experience, because I wanted to really have my resume showing the experience and to really hone in my skills as a registered radiologic technologist. Number five, strong job security and flexibility. Who, who doesn't want that? I do. I want it. So if you guys want it, radiologic technology, starting there as your career path, in my opinion, is the best way to go. You can always go into radiation therapy, nuclear medicine, ultrasound, or sonography and MRI. alone without going to radiology technology first if you fulfill that school's requirements. But, and this is a but, I want you to think about this. Strong job security and flexibility, those two things. When you do those four things as the primary pathway, which nothing is wrong, so don't come in my comments and come at me y'all. We are all medical imaging. But I'm just going to tell you something you may not have thought about because many people think about the easy and quick route. Doesn't mean it's wrong. Doesn't mean it's not right. Doesn't mean it's not for you, but I want you to think about this option, which gives you flexibility and job security. Those two things go together. Not that the other four don't, but that flexibility. is great. And job security is great on this fifth way. I'm going to tell you, if you start as a registered radiologic technologist by going to school, to a radiology technology program and get a two to four year degree, depending on which program you choose. Now, once you graduate and take your ARRT exam, you are not qualified. Get this, to do any other medical imaging profession you want to by taking extra certifications up to maybe a year. With that registered radiologic technology training and degree, you are now qualified to be a radiologist assistant. You cannot do that with the other primary pathways. That's huge. And that right there helps with your flexibility and your job security. The other four, you would have to still go back to school for radiology to do all the other modalities, or you'd have to go to ultrasound. You have to go to MRI. You have to go to new med if you're a radiation therapist, totally different. I believe that when you start at the foundation, everything else is open to you. If you ever say, I want to do diagnostic x ray anymore. Think I want to go over to radiation therapy. You do that for a few years. Hmm. Think I want to go to nuclear medicine. Do that for a few years after getting certified as well. Think I want to learn CT. Think I want to learn bone density now. Think I want to become a radiologist assistant. You got options, flexibility. And that's to me, what makes radiology technology have all the perks in the world. So I don't know if you all agree with me, but those five perks, I'm going to recap them. Number one, influence on patient care. Number two, variety and daily task. Number three, close patient connections. Number four, hands on experience in advanced technology and five strong job security and flexibility. So I want to encourage you all. to consider these benefits when thinking about a career in radiology technology and to not only think about what others have said negatively, I'm telling you the real deal. I've done it for 20 years and I'm very happy, very, very happy that I chose this profession. We're just five today. I'm going to come back with more. Let me know in the comments, what other perks you would like for me to share when it comes to medical imaging and radiologic technology. I invite you to share your experiences and thoughts on you being a radiologic technologist and medical imaging profession in the comments. Thank you guys for being my audience and listening next episode. We're going to talk about something really important. Maybe you want to become a radiologic technologist after this. I'm going to talk about a really detailed, detailed way that you can do that. Come back for more. And until then, be sure to check out my other videos.