How Important is the Radiologic Technologist to the Healthcare Team?

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Diagnosis of events that occur in the human body was totally stymied until the invention of the X-ray machine. When the capability came to take a photographic picture of untold episodes inside mankind, the world would never be the same.

Healthcare teams across the country take the radiology techs for granted. These professionals are expected to drop everything and run to the side of the exasperated surgeon, the ED physician who needs a broken bone count, and the pediatrician who is curious about how many pennies little Johnny actually swallowed.

Today, the occupation encompasses other methods of securing internal images, such as magnetic resonance imaging, mammography and computed tomography. Radiologic technologists play a key role in the diagnosis and treatment of patients by physicians.

Location, Location, Location

It never fails. When the radiology tech is summoned, he or she is persistently in the wrong location. He or she is on a different floor, on the move to ICU for a random chest X-ray, running to the emergency department, or stuck in an operating room that is too small for his or her equipment with a swearing orthopedic surgeon who can’t seem to make the intramedullary rod quite target properly. No other healthcare team member travels as much with equipment as the radiology tech. He or she is expected to show up when called and with a smile on his or her face.

For the stationery radiology tech who is assigned to a definite department of his or her very own, you may see him or her in the corner being grateful that he or she doesn’t have to cover many floors and other units like his or her exhausted cohorts.

Accuracy

Radiology techs must study and produce excellent technique. The way the film is generated is a mystery to some team members. They just want it to be perfect and revealing. A good radiology tech is a good troubleshooter and can correct problems with little effort. They know the equipment and are handy with suggestions to the surgeon on how to bring out details. After all, these films are archived in the medical records and can be used as legal documents.

Anticipation

The seasoned tech can see trouble coming. When certain things happen in certain settings, there can be a sixth sense of eminent changes that will have to be emergently made. Perhaps there is a leak of contrast in a vessel that has a guide wire traveling through its lumen. A good radiology tech will make way for more instruments and be prepared to follow up for any other procedure that may require his or her service.

Consideration/Courtesy

Knowing that the rays travel off the machine at a certain distant, the radiology tech must inform healthcare team members of the danger of overexposure and most of them will actually offer lead aprons to the staff. This makes for good rapport among team members and staff members who are stuck in a restrictive area that may not have time to chase down the apron rack and gather them up for coverage. Courtesy counts for a lot in high stress venues and medical facilities are no exception.