Are You an MRI or CT Technologist? Read This!

Have you been scanning in MRI and never had official onsite training? Were you hired given 1 day to lean the basics and thrown in the fire? Sink or swim?

I’ve heard too many times to count about MRI technologists working anywhere from 1 year to 20 years that have never been officially trained. What happens when you work on 1 scanner for 1 center for 5 years straight?

You learn only what you learn at that one center and if you work alone then you have no one to learn from.

What I’ve noticed in my travels is that almost 100% would love for the opportunity to learn more about what they do for a living. They want to be able to ask questions that have pondered them for years. Ready to try a new technique but just not sure how to go about it and could really use a helping hand. Radiologist see images that aren’t adequate and wish that the technologist had proper training to make their job easier.

So why doesn’t training happen? Out of 365 days in a year an average applications on site training usually last 4 days. Isn’t this an investment that surely would benefit the company as a hold? Staying abreast on the new techniques or capabilities of MRI is important. When you learn from someone who wasn’t properly trained themselves you start digging a hole of misinformation. Not on purpose or with ill intent, instead they’re doing the best they can with what they’ve been taught thus far.

Each facility that has any type of imaging should invest in their employees yearly to get training. Yet it doesn’t happen. The majority has training on or offsite right after a new installation or install and that’s it. The need to revisit and find the minimal revenue necessary to invest into training is bypassed. The need for training should be addressed by management, radiologist and technologist. What training does is create confidence with knowledge. The ability to answer questions and troubleshoot issues.

Now let me ask you…Does this sound like you?