x ray technician?

Question

my cousin wants to take a x ray technician class but she doesnt know what type of stuff is taught in the class... can someone help me to help dher out?? please and thank you... :)

Answer 1

Lots of anatomy.
Medical terminology.
All about x-rays, how they make an image on the film, and darkroom techniques to develop the film.
How to position the patient for each type of xray.
How to inject contrast materials into the patient through a vein or via a tube in their body.
A little about ultrasound, MRI, CT and nuclear imaging, to give you an introduction in case you want to go into one of those fields later.
Stuff you need to know to work in a hospital like sterile technique, medical ethics.
These days I'm sure you need to learn about digital imaging since they use computers a lot.

When I went to school half the day was classes and the other half was actual work taking x-rays. We started taking x-rays on day one under the supervision of technologists. I went to a hospital school, though. I don't know how the technical schools do their training.

Answer 2

Having done Nuclear Medicine Technologist training (which shares 90% of the same classes as that taken by my Radiologist colleagues...)

Anatomy and Physiology - finding your way around the human (or generalised animal) body, how the systems work and interact, how they develop from an embryo, etc. All the gooey stuff that's vital to know :-) both to find your way around the body on a radiograph (X-ray film) and to understand what's going on in there. Also makes explicit the effects of environmenal stressors on unborn children at different stages.

Biomedical Science - the core, often molecular mechanics of how the above functions, in and between cells. Useful for knowing what causes the function of systems you may be observing, and how stuff may be affected on a cellular level by exposures.

Maths, Stats and I.T. - essential basic skills that you will need to get along. Well, OK... you'll need to be able to add up, probably do a little bit of algebra to help with shielding and dose calculations, and be able to type it up at the end or formulate a simple spreadsheet. But a large amount of this is unneccessary, super boring toss - all the same, you have to learn it and pass the exam to qualify.

Mechanics, Electronics and equipment (?) / Signals, Processing and instrumentation - the "?" is because i can't remember it's first-half title. Regardless it's much the same, familiarising yourself with the equipment, techniques, and physical facts and realities of your chosen profession, even if it doesnt stretch to messing with actual kit. Will probably cross pollinate with other similar disciplines as well, e.g. ultrasound, nuc med, MRI... Again a lot of it is boring guff but you have to learn it, and parts can be fun.

Radiation Protection: The art of getting a good, clear exposure without needlessly dosing up the patient - or yourself - more than is absolutely necessary; room design, equipment commisioning, intial and regular QC, imaging/exposure parameters, dose monitoring (on machine, and personally) and the processing of dose meters.. so on and so forth.

Specialist module and in-work training / placement - the part which is different from the generalisation of the rest; this is specialised to the subject, e.g. radiology. Including tuition on things that only really concern you (e.g. DAP calculations, room design, CT, contrast methodology etc), more focussed development of points touched on generally elsewhere, research presentations and group projects, and of course, the placement... which could be an ongoing contract with time off for college and study, or simply a summer holiday job.

Don't let her forget that it's not as simple as just X-ray any more; there's a great deal of diagnostic disciplines you could go into - X-ray (inc CT, fluoroscopy), Ultrasound (inc doppler, 4D), MRI, Nuclear Medicine (including PET), Endoscopy, Cardiology, Audiology, Haematology, etc. It's amazing the number of tests that must go on each day...

Also getting pregnant isn't the end of the world in such a job, it should just mean you're put on desk duty (film / result processing and analysis, reception and admin, etc) and other low/no-dose tasks (e.g. playing the part of a junior nurse) until the baby is born.

Answer 3

She will need A& P so that the techincal classes will be easier.
Its a great job.

Just when she wants to get preganent she needs to cross train for another job. It is dangerous during that time. REALLY>

Great job, and can take it all over USA. Well done