Hello Again

It's been almost a year since I've posted to this blog. When I was a student, I'd come across other blogs and almost inevitably at some point, the posts would just stop. It was very aggravating. How could these people just leave me in the lurch like that? Well, now I know how that can happen!

Since I graduated, I've remained at the urgent care clinic and yes, I'm still taking x-rays on my ancient machine. The one good thing about it is that I have no phototiming, so I need to actually know my techniques. If you are a student and you are working on equipment that does have AEC, I have a recommendation for you. If your site allows, challenge yourself and make one day a day where you manual technique your exams. You may not always be working somewhere with the techniques programmed into the machine!

In addition to working full time I have started working on my bachelor's degree through an online program offered by Northern Arizona University. When I graduate from that program, I will have a Bachelor's of Science in Diagnostic Medical Imaging and Therapy. That doesn't mean a whole lot as far as being a tech and getting a job, unless you want to go into management. But my ultimate goal is to be able to teach and for that you need a master's degree. So this is one step in a process.

I am also taking a certificate course in MRI offered through the community college I graduated from. You don't need anything to sit for the MR registry other than to have your required number of exams signed off on. However, the course is helpful because you get sectional anatomy, pathology, protocol/procedure and MR physics classes. The physics between x-ray and MR are totally different, so that alone made it a worthwhile investment of time. I have finished the didactic portion of this and I will be starting my clinical rotation (at the same hospital where I did my x-ray clinicals) in early June.

Why MR? Several reasons. I discovered that while I like taking x-rays, I do not like fluoro or having to wrangle the C-arm in OR. That limits my options as far as finding work as an x-ray tech so I'd like to move into something else. MR makes beautiful pictures. And it's a slower pace than CT or x-ray and I've always been a slow tech. I know, it's getting faster but still, just because of the physics involved, I don't think it will ever catch up to the others.

I recently attended a conference that was held in town and sponsored by the Indian Health Services. I'll talk about that in my next post!