Radiology Tech, an Undervalued Step in the Medical Pipeline
During the month of October, I opted to volunteer in the radiology department at University Medical Center and was placed with radiology technicians. Because I came in on Sundays, I mostly helped the technicians with inpatient care which had a very relaxed pace compared to other venues I've served in. While I was there, I worked closely with the technician Ashli, who performed medical examinations by using a portable X-ray machine to capture an image of a patient's body. The most common of this exam was the chest X-ray (CXR). The primary task I was allowed to lend a hand in was aiding Ashli with sliding a flat panel detector (a flat board needed to create the X-ray image in conjunction with the X-ray machine) underneath patients whom were lying down. Because patients needing CXRs were usually suspected of having bone fractures, they typically had a decreased range of motion which made this step of the process difficult and physically taxing. Other members in this departmen