Here's a Quick Way to Speed Up Your Xray Exams

Beginning your clinical rotation in x-ray school can be overwhelming.  Not only are you plunged into a new environment, you are expected to pick up on a lot of information at a very fast pace.  Take a routine chest x-ray for example.  Positioning class teaches the appropriate guidelines for how to line the patient up for the central ray, which AEC cells to select, and what kind of breathing instructions to give, but it will not teach you how to become efficient while performing chest x-rays.  This must be accomplished with repetition and actual hands-on experience with the unique equipment you are using.

Here's some basic advice on how to develop a series of steps to perform for each x-ray exam that will improve your speed in a very short amount of time:

Develop an ABC system - You may notice seasoned technologists preparing for an exam in a specific order (prior to the patient entering the room).  For a standing chest x-ray, my order would be A - set a technique at the control panel, B - place a cassette in the upright bucky (if still using cassettes), and C - detent x-ray tube to wall buck and raise vertically to allow patient to walk under.  Only then will I bring the patient into the room.  

This way, when the patient is ready to be positioned, I only spend a few seconds adjusting the bucky height and placing the patient against it.  Then it takes about a few more seconds to lower the x-ray tube vertically and align it to the bucky (it's already locked in transverse and longitudinal planes).  Finally I can begin breathing instructions as I'm walking to the control panel (which has already been set up).  By the time my finger is on the exposure button, it's ready to be pushed and I've spent less than 20 or 30 seconds total for one exposure.  

You'll notice the same steps for my lateral exposure immediately following the PA, and telling the patient to breathe normally.  A - set new technique at the control panel, B - replace cassette in bucky, and C - position patient (bucky is already aligned).  You can literally get through a chest x-ray in 2 minutes or less for the average walking/talking patient.

I employ the same basic steps when doing exams on the x-ray table.  A - set technique at the control panel, B - place cassette in bucky, and C - position patient.  On the table, it will save you a lot of time to leave the tube and bucky aligned, and use the floating table top feature to move the patient as needed between positions.  Don't forget to have the tube out of the way while putting the patient on the table.  I usually detent in transverse and vertical planes and slide the tube past the head or foot-end of the table so all I have to adjust is the longitudinal plane once the patient is supine.

This is just one method to increase your exam efficiency.  The trick is, you'll have to make an effort to practice doing things in the same order every time.  After a few repetitions, you will find yourself performing these steps without having to think about it, much like driving a car... remember learning how to do that?  

You'll be concentrating on new positioning details and other new information throughout the majority of your x-ray program, and you'll be expected to apply them in clinical practice.  The less you have to strive to remember during an exam, the more efficient you will be.  And remember, practice makes perfect!

Do you have any proven methods to increase your exam speed?

Medical Imaging Scholarships

Being in school for radiography or any other modality (CT, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, intervientional radiology, or MRI) can be time consuming and expensive.  One thing I've noticed over the years is how many scholarships are actually available for medical imaging, but get awarded without many people aware of them. 

I would like to make this an ever-growing, comprehensive list as a resource for my readers... If you are aware of any other scholarships that you do not see on this list, and would like to include them, please either post in the comment section or email me, and I will edit to include it in this post. 

Jerman-Cahoon Scholarship - offered by the ASRT to entry-level students in Radiography, Ultrasound, MRI or Nuclear Medicine ($2,500)

Royce Osborn Minority Student Scholarship - offered by the ARRT and private donors to entry-level students in Radiography, Ultrasound, MRI, or Nuclear Medicine (5 scholarships of $4,000)

Elekta Radiation Therapy Scholarship - offered by Elekta for outstanding entry-level students in Radiation Therapy

Ruth McMillan Radiography Student Grant - offered by the California Society of Radiologic Technologists for Radiography students with academic excellence and leadership attributes ($500 - California students only)

Anna B Ames Clinical Excellence Student Grant - offered by the California Society of Radiologic Technologists for Radiography students with clinical excellence and a sense of leadership ($500 - California students only)

Society of Nuclear Medicine Scholarships - numerous grants and scholarships from the SNMC for all educational levels (from $750 - $60,000)

Varian Radiation Therapy Advancement Scholarship - offered by Varian for Bachelors, Masters and Doctorial students for Radiation Therapy (19 scholarships of $5,000)

Siemens Clinical Advancement Scholarship - offered by Siemens USA for students seeking a Bachelors or Masters Degree in Radiologic Sciences or Certificate in CT, MRI or Ultrasound (4 scholarships of $4,000)

Osborne Scholarship - for AHRA members to participate in AHRA's Annual Meeting & Exposition, Spring Conference, or Fall Conference

Broadley Scholarship - for current AHRA members who hold a supervisory position within a medical imaging department or imaging center and have been accepted into an initial undergraduate or initial graduate degree program relevant to a supervisory career in the medical imaging field

AHRA Annual Meeting Scholarship - for registration and hotel accommodations to AHRA members who have previously attended the Annual Meeting but have no employer funding to attend this year’s meeting in Orlando, FL

Professional Advancement Scholarship - offered by the ASRT Patrons and HealtheCareers for Bachelors, Masters or Certificate programs (multiple scholarships of $1,500)

Medical Imaging Educators Scholarship - offered by the ASRT for educators pursuing Bachelors, Masters or Doctoral degrees to enhance educational position (4 scholarships of $5,000)

University of North Carolina Allied Health Scholarships - numerous grants and scholarships from UNC covering tuition and other expenses

Scholarships for Radiography Students in Minnesota - various scholarship and grant opportunities

Association for Radiologic and Imaging Nursing - various scholarships for tuition and conferences (RN's only)

American Roentgen Ray Society Scholarship - for those seeking to advance their education in the field of Radiology (2 scholarships of up to $140,000)

Howard S. Stern Scholarship - for those with career goals in oncology or radiology (9 scholarships of $1,000)

Atlantic General Hospital Radiology Scholarship - work/study scholarship where student works 12.5 hrs/wk at the hospital and commits to amount of time of employment after school for exchange of paid tuition

Donald Starr Radiography Scholarship - Available to students attending Armstrong Atlantic State University ($250 - $1,000 based on need)

Mary Sebacher Radiography Scholarship - Available to students at Missouri University ($500)

California Allied Health Care Scholarship - Up to a $4,000 scholarship with a 1 year service-agreement OR 100 hours of community service.

How to use Twitter to Search for Jobs

We all know the job market is looking pretty grim these days.  It's not impossible to find work as a radiologic technologist, but the competition is fierce.  It seems like every day there are new job search engines or websites on the internet and it can be exhausting visiting every single one of these.  Enter the vast world of social media and the apps that can be utilized with it.

Twitter is considered a "micro-blogging" website where you can write a few characters of words or post links to let all of your friends know what you've been up to.  Social networking might be the last thing on your mind if you're actively looking for a job, but there is a way to make it work for you as an organizational tool, and the beauty of it is you don't even have to post (tweet) anything... just set up an account and let it do the work for you in three easy steps:

Step 1: Get a Twitter account at www.twitter.com.  It takes only seconds and an active email address to establish a twitter account.  Make sure to fill in profile information and consider leaving it professional if you are going to be using it for job-hunting.

Step 2: Get a TweetDeck account at www.tweetdeck.com.  You can log in with your newly created twitter account without having to provide much information.

Step 3:  Set up custom columns.  Once logged into Tweetdeck, you can create columns by clicking the "+" sign on the left hand side.  Here's where you may have to do a few minutes of research on how you would like information presented to you.  You can CLICK HERE to see the different types of information available to place into your custom columns.

Once you've done these things, you will see the tweets roll in while you sit back and relax.  If they're moving a little too fast to read, consider filtering the column (top right icon of each column).  There are filtering options to help keep the feed you see more pertinent to your needs.

In the picture on the right, you can see two columns I have created in the "search" category.  I used "radiography" and "radiologic technologist".  If you're going to use this type of search, make sure you are using terms that you would normally type into a job search.

Be creative with these columns... if you set one up and don't like the info you are seeing, feel free to tweak it just a bit.  Sometimes a small change in the filtering criteria can make a huge difference, and it's very easy to do.  Here are a few of the custom column options I thought were most useful for job hunting:

• Timeline - this allows you to follow a single account.  It also includes interactions with other account holders who interact with this account. 
• Search - allows key-word search like the example above (i.e. xray tech, rad tech, ARRT, fluoro, etc).  While not all tweets in this column will be composed of job opportunities, they can generate to new leads.
• Tweets - similar to the timeline column, it follows a single account, but will not include outside interaction.   I would recommend this if you have a stand-out preference for where you would like to work.  Place one company's twitter feed into its own column.  Make additional columns for other companies you would consider working for.
• Custom - this column is a place for you to transfer and store tweets hand-selected by you.  For instance, if you don't have time to respond to a potential job opportunity, place it here and return for it later without having to search around.  You can assign your own names for these columns (job opportunities, apply, research more).

TweetDeck isn't the only service around that offers filtering of twitter feeds, but I chose to use it for two simple reasons; it's free and it's user-friendly.  You can learn how to use it in about ten minutes.  Even if you're not "tech-savvy", their help center is fantastic for the tools you'll find.  There are also a lot of YouTube video tutorials out there you can view for free if you're more of the visual-learner type (like me).  Once your feeds are set up, you can visit the site any time and watch it feed live.  The only think you have to do is click on potential opportunities.

Click Here to Learn How to Land a Health Care Job Fast! (AD)

Regardless of your field of work, new tools are coming out every day to get information faster.  While I would never recommend using twitter as your sole source of employment prospects, a lot of employers are breaking into social media, and are posting external job opportunities to these accounts.  Why not be first among those hearing about them?

How are you using social media to search for a job?

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Top 5 Movies for Health Care Workers

Whether you are a radiologic technologist, registered nurse or a physician, it's easy to become desensitized when faced with daily hardships of illness, trauma, loss of life, grieving, and lack medical insurance coverage.  While we must be able to temporarily put aside our emotions in order to perform our jobs involving patient care, we should not forget about taking these things into account when caring for our patients.  Understanding not only our patients' experiences, but the effects of their medical condition on their family members, financial status, and ability to undergo treatment can make a huge difference on how we implement their care and its effectiveness.  These are my top 5 movies that, in my opinion, provide a broad range of perspective from various points of view.  They also serve to periodically remind me of the reasons I entered the medical field. 

Patch Adams:  I wish more health care workers would take this kind of attitude to heart.  While medicine is a serious field to be held with great respect, this movie reminds us that both the patient AND the disease need and deserve to be treated.  

John Q:  This movie is becoming more relative these days with health care reform / Obamacare.  More and more families cannot afford health care, which makes it devastating to a father to know there is treatment available for his child, but he is unable to afford it.  The tag line for this movie is perfect: "Give a father no options, and you leave him no choice."

Extraordinary Measures:  I find myself watching this from the patient's father's perspective.  So often it can feel like you are on different "teams" than your doctors, who are bound by certain rules and regulations.  I love this story which shows how much can be accomplished when we work together and put everything you have into finding a solution.

Lorenzo's Oil:  It is incredibly frustrating when there's no money for clinical research, therefore no cure for a rare disease that a family member is suffering from.  This inspirational story, based on true events, is another example of what parents are willing to do when the health care system fails us.

The Doctor:  One of the most under-rated movies ever!  William Hurt plays an arrogant, narcissistic physician who has never heard of something we like to call "bedside manner".  He undergoes a transformation of character when he becomes diagnosed with cancer. 

These movies are great for shaping us to provide better patient care.  Do you have any movies that you would put on a list for health care workers?

When to Remove Clothing for X-rays

Yes, it may take a few minutes of your time, but it never hurts to place a patient in a gown rather than a collared shirt or polo.  It's hard to tell which clothes will show up on x-ray and which ones won't, but if there's any doubt, go ahead and remove it.

The image below shows a collared shirt that happened to make an appearance on the radiograph.  There is also evidence of clothing laterally near the diaphragm:

There are so many variables in determining whether or not a patient's clothes will show up on your x-rays.  Sometimes, it depends on the fabric itself.  100% cotton generally doesn't show up on a radiograph, as long as it's not bunched up or folded.  Polyester typically does.  The type of exam you're doing with the technical factors you're selecting also contributes to how much you will see clothing, but let's focus on these simple guidelines:

1. If it's anything other than a plain cotton t-shirt, it will probably show up.
2. If you're concerned about it overlying the area of interest, remove it.
3. If it has embroidery, logos, or buttons, better to take it off.

Of course, it never hurts to simply change everyone into patient gowns, but it's up to you to weigh the pros and cons for yourself.  If you don't want to go that route, just keep in mind the repeat exposures and amount of time it may take if you have to perform a second exposure every time you see some of these artifacts interfering with your exam.  

Kindle eBook Giveaway

From November 4 thru 8, you can get my eBook (Kindle version) "Becoming a Radiologic Technologist" for free!  Just wait until Monday, and click here:  FREE eBOOK

You do NOT need a Kindle tablet to view a Kindle eBook... you can view on just about any device (smart phones, computers, tablets, cloud readers) of all major manufacturers.  Just visit the Free App page for Kindle and select your device of choice.

This is the perfect resource for anyone thinking about radiologic technology as a career in the United States.  I would love to hear your feedback after you have read it with an Amazon review!