WEEK 10: RADIOLOGY

This week I did my clinical observations in the Radiology department of the hospital with several radiology techs. They each had a patient that they individually performed several tests on. There was usually only a couple of patients in this area at a time.

Things I learned this week:

• Precautions in radiology
• patient prep
• the different machines used

The BEST thing that happened this week was getting to see the actual x-rays.I wasn't able to see any abnormalities due to the fact that the techs couldn't diagnose anything. It was still cool to see these people's insides.

The WORST thing that happened this week was the time in between patients.  Radiology isn't a very busy area so there are a lot of periods of time in between when the techs are just doing busy work in the area. You can't really avoid it but once it's past the area isn't too bad.

Overall this week was: GOOD

What I Observed...

 

 Technology

• MRI
• CT SCAN
• FILM
• X-RAY

Diagnostic procedures

•  X-RAYS

Therapeutic procedures

• THE TECHS ARE NOT TRAINED TO ADVISE TREATMENT

Diseases/Disorders

• POSSIBLE BROKEN RIBS
• POSSIBLE SPRAINED WRIST
• POSSIBLE KIDNEY STONES
• POSSIBLE STROKE
• POSSIBLE CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE

Medical Terminology 

•  MRI- MAGNETIC RESONATING IMAGING
• CT SCAN- COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY SCAN

Other

•  THE TECHS UPLOAD THE FILMS MAKING THEM READILY AVAILABLE FOR THE RADIOLOGISTS, NURSES AND DOCTORS TO DIAGNOSE.
• IT IS NOT A VERY STERILE AREA
• IF THE PATIENT HAS ACCUMULATED TOO MUCH FAT THE X-RAY BECOMES CLOUDY AND NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE THE OUTLINES OF THE ORGANS.

 

 I. This area of the hospital is very isolated with no patient contact. It is across from the ER and takes a double set of closed off doors to go to. It does have visitors who are consisted of mostly paramedics or EMT techs who have dropped off bodily fluids that are needed for testing for someone who has just arrived in the ER and that the nurses are wanting to quickly find out there conditions so they can triage them. All the workers have  a time limit on most tests but the most important tests are the ER patients and they are given a 30 minute time limit or it is unacceptable because these patients need to be quickly assessed to make sure there aren't any critical issues that may possibly be fatal.

II. This week I primarily worked with a lab technician who ran tests for both urine and blood. Since she doesn't have to constantly hurry to keep up with patients and charting she was able to actually sit down and show me around the area and teach me all about the blood cells and what both the normal and abnormal look like and was able to show me some of the tests that she was running. She basically gave me a run down of the basics about red blood cells and plasma.

III. After working with the general lab tech, I was given the chance to work with a biomedical lab tech who worked with the blood and urine samples that needed to be set at specific cold temperatures to test for toxicity. The room was very small. It consisted of a fridge filled with samples that needed to be tested and the toxicity machine next to another fridge that held all of the equipment necessary to test all of the samples. It is a very sterile area and all equipment is used once and disposable as to not cross contaminate.

IV.Overall I had a good experience in terms of the educational value. I learned a lot and had a teacher who was interested in teaching me all about her practice which is typically hard to come by but understandable due to the constant busyness of the typical nurse or doctor. On the other hand with my dizziness and sickness I spent a lot of the time wanting to go home and take a nap.