niloc009

Thanks for taking the time to do this! I'm an xray technologist student, and I have 2 questions for you.

1) Working with pediatrics isn't exactly my strong suit, any tips on working around kids, getting them to cooperate?

2) What's one thing as x-ray techs that we can do to make your life easier? Whether it's in the OR or otherwise?

Most people from my class (80%?) found a job right away, but I still think there is an oversaturation, yeah. There's too many older techs filling all the full time positions that it's insanely difficult to get a permanent full time in the first 5-10 years of employment. And the schools here are only making it worse. We used to graduate 80 here in BC, but now two more schools have opened up this year and that number is about to jump to about 120. Unless a few more hospitals are opened up in the next little while, I see the unemployed numbers skyrocketing and techs in their first few years only working a few shifts a month. I'm just happy that I've gotten a job before the mass graduates come, so at least I have seniority over them. But it's going to be bad times for them, that's for sure.

1) How do you go about becoming a technician?

First off (in Canada anyway), it's technologist, not technician :P it's a 2 year program in British Columbia, 10 months of class, full year of practicum. All the prerequisites are grade 12 courses, English, Physics, Biology, Math. All with at least a B.

2) What is your day to day routine?

I work at a hospital, so most of my day is imaging patients from emergency or the wards. Though we do get a lot of outpatients as well. You'll do a lot of patient transfers between beds and the exam table. Sometimes the OR will call and you'll need to assist with orthopaedic, urinary, or cardiac surgeries. There will usually be a few portables in the day where you'll have to take an xray machine on wheels to the ward or emergency for a patient that can't go to the department.

3) What are the options for growth in nuclear medicine? And how much training is needed to go from say...CT to MRI?

I believe Nuc Med is its own separate course, but having x-ray technologist on the resume won't hurt. We come out of our program CT qualified, you just need to have a few extra practicum weeks to be fully certified. MRI is an extra 2 years of schooling on top of the original 2, giving you a Bachelor's degree.

4) Does being a computer nerd techie make it easier to navigate and operate these complex pieces of hardware.

Yes and no. The systems are quite intuitive and made to be simple. There's not a lot of complex computer stuff you'll do on a day to day basis. Though when problems do arise, it's always helpful to have some computer knowledge so that you might be able to fix it without having to call the IT guys.

5) What other career choices did you consider? Do you still love it?

Considered doctor, respiratory therapist, nurse, and a couple other medical careers. Settled on x-ray because of the program length. Yes, I still love every day! Though I am still in my first year out of school, so maybe I can't chime in on that just yet haha

Any other questions? Fire away!