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 department were all but too happy to weigh in on the trials and tribulations they encountered on a day-to-day basis.

    I was able to gain some insight from Ashli during my time in the radiology department and among them was that there is inadequate equipment allotted to technicians to carry out their job of patient care. She expressed compassion and concern for patients while conducting the CXR imaging by emphasizing that a radiology tech needed to not only get a good picture for the doctor, but also make sure the patient isn't harmed during the process. And for overweight patients especially, it is difficult to achieve both of these objectives without risking injury to the technician themselves. Unfortunately, this professionalism and empathy isn't recognized enough and at least for the department I worked with, they do not have the necessary equipment and may not be paid enough to deliver adequate care for patients and provide optimal imaging for an ideal healthcare service.

    As for how I'm managing in class, I've been enjoying the cardiovascular module the most compared to everything we've learned so far. The few lectures on ECGs were the most enlightening since I've worked in the ED with physicians that interpret patient ECGs before, but I didn't understand what exactly they were reading until now. The moments when I can finally make a connection between something I've been doing at work and material I learn in class make the time and effort into studying worth it. 

    The recent lectures on vasculature and smooth muscles was a topic I definitely could have spent more time on. I hate to make excuses, but the week of those lectures was especially bad for me so I'll make an effort to review them in the future. 

I volunteered for 8 hours this month.

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