Clinical Orientation Packet Analysis

I’m a valley girl, a Santa Maria Valley girl to be exact! Naturally, then, I chose to fulfill my shadowing requirements at Santa Maria’s newly built Marian Regional Medical Center. I needed to see for myself what human kindness, paired with a state-of-the-art hospital, offering advanced technologies, is truly all about. On Wednesday, October 6, 2016, I had the privilege of spending eight hours exploring six different modalities conducted within Marians Radiology department. It was an opportunity that I took full advantage of; a truly invaluable experience.

Radiologic technology is a satisfying and rewarding career. It is a technical and refined science. As a radiological technologist, there are many essential duties and responsibilities that have to be fulfilled in order to be a good one. First of all, radiological technologists have to maintain a well-mannered and professional behavior when gathering information. They have to assure their patients that they are in good hands therefore; they give patients the uppermost quality of care and services. Second of all, the main responsibility of a healthcare provider is to keep all knowledge of a patient’s health record confidential or secluded. That means radiological technologists cannot talk about patients at home or with friends and classmates

PCAM, which is part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, is home to Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center, radiation oncology, cardiovascular medicine and an outpatient surgical pavilion. Tom has been a radiology technician since 1981. He worked ten years as a staff technologist, in which during that time he received his bachelor’s in business management. Over the next ten to twelve years he assumed a supervisory role before becoming director of radiology at a smaller community hospital. He then completed his MBA at Saint Joseph’s University—go hawks—before finally moving back to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The reason I chose to conduct a phone interview with Tom was two-fold. One, Tom is the supervisor of a student, Ame Allen, in our class. She proposed the idea and he loved the thought of helping a fellow Saint Joe’s student. Two, I’ll be the first to admit that I know very little about radiology, what it offers—besides being admitted once for a CT scan—and how it operates. I saw this as an opportunity to learn something new, something we have never discussed during the healthcare

Cleveland Clinic Science Internship Program, Radiology (2016) This is a nine-week, paid internship for rising high school juniors and seniors who attend school in Northeast Ohio. This internship gives students the ability to work with nationally-renowned physicians, researchers, and other healthcare professionals. Students are given the opportunities to focus on research, innovation, education, and development of better, more efficient ways to achieve quality in patient care. I had the opportunity to shadow and assist in every specialty of Fairview Hospital’s Radiology Department and completed a research

Many of the radiographers and students I observed explained how and why they set up the equipment in a certain manner, which allowed them the best chance of taking high quality images with the least amount of radiation exposure as possible to a patient. In many cases it was explained why images at different angles of a body part was necessary. Not only does taking quality images the first time make the procedure timelier, but it decreases the radiation exposure to the patient. Overall I believe I became more familiar with radiological terminology in addition to the radiological equipment and the functions of the equipment.

The first couple weeks of school are always the most stressful. They get you thinking about how the semester is going to be and different ways to get you motivated. However, the beginning of this semester is probably one of the most stressful semesters that I have encountered because being a part of the radiography program is a very big achievement. It is a program where I know I will have to be ahead of the game the whole two years, which keeps me on my feet. Throughout this paper I am going to discuss the reasons why I wanted to enter into the program, and the things that I have learned so far along with my short-term and long-term goals.

In the mid-1960s, an era when Technology was rapidly advancing, it became important for all the Radiology professions governing bodies, ARRT, ASRT, and ACR, to increase the standards and level of training for Radiology professionals (Phillips, 2010). This advancement began to make the term “Technician” quite limiting. So, with more emphasis on professionalism and education, the term “Technologist” was born because it accurately reflected the Associate Society of Radiologic Technologist (ASRT) membership (Phillips, 2010). This development and classification also came with additional responsibility, where all Technologists have to adhere to the standards created by the ARRT.

However, I graduated from the program with discipline, hard work and self-determination, as I saw it a stepping stone to my educational aspiration in obtaining an education and a career in the field of Radiologic Technology. My interest in this program started when I was a teenager living abroad in the Dominican Republic and I had to get a CT-Scan for an injury. Despite being in discomfort and pain at the time, I remembered asking the technician a lot of questions about the equipment and how it worked and what the images of the scan explained about my injury. The field of radiology technology interacts with all areas of medicine and it not only offers specialization but it offers new challenges and offers numerous learning opportunities to further my knowledge. From that interaction with the radiographer, is when I began to pursue my interest

Radiology is a medical specialty that uses different imagaing technologies to diagnose and to treat many different diseases and injuries that are inside the human body. Being a professional in the health care environment today is a very important job. The American Registry of Radiologic Technologist (ARRT) created a mandatory continuing education (CE) exam for all radiologic technologist. The ARRT defines the continuing education requirements as "planned, organized and administered to enhance the knowledge and skills underlying the professional performance that the technologist uses to provide services to patients, the public or the medical profession. To qualify as a CE activity, it must provide sufficient depth and scope of a subject area."

The radiologists expect tech notes on each patient, unlike UCH Denver. For the most part, a tech has been by my side to make sure I obtain the correct information. Then, they check the notes students write to assess whether the notes are written well enough, giving us tips and corrections. Ed has suggested that I write down the clinical history, in short hand, of course. I have found that writing down my questions before hand ensures I do not miss my information. Students are allowed to retrieve patients from the emergency department and outpatient waiting areas. There are small changing areas and gowns available, but hardly utilized. Most patients seen in the exam rooms are already changed in the emergency department. The greatest difference I have discovered is that our patients include children and babies. Children are so much smaller and they

An obstacle encountered while compiling the required information for this packet was that a departmental map did not exist. I had to draw a crude floorplan and then use Visio software to construction a floorplan to use in my documents.

There are many different forms of reading that are involved with being a radiology tech. First, I must be able to read my patient’s body language. It is very important to know how to read body language because I may actually harm my patient if I misread their body language. I would also have to read the X-ray results. Misinterpreting the lab results could lead to misdiagnosis, incorrect treatment, or could make the initial problem worse. Therefore, reading is an essential aspect of my future career as a radiology technician, but I must make sure that I am accurate to avoid future issues with the

tool for evaluation. Clinical images should also be examined. One or more radiologists should be involved in setting up the displays for the first time to ensure that the images are clinically acceptable.

The radiography program taught me about patient care and hospital policies, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that protects patient's privacy, and proper behavior in hospital

The clinical site at Cannon Falls is a great environment to work in and the coworkers there are friendly to work with. The technologists that are present in the hospital setting answered almost every question I had about what we do as radiologist. The first day on my clinic, the tech shows me around the hospital such as where to park, the cafeteria, where to put my stuff. In the first week of the clinic, my first chest x-ray positioning went great even though I did not know the control panel that well. That same week I was helping out with the exams, like setup the room, taking the patients and position them then take image from the patience while the supervision was present. My first attempt on the foot, I was the technologist said I have to angle the oblique 10 degrees angle, this procedure was new to me since the positioning they have in our book is little bit different in a way.