3/7/18

Imaging & Radiology Observations

I had the opportunity to observe the radiology department at Johnston Memorial Hospital in
Abingdon, Virginia on Monday, March 5th and Tuesday, March 6th of 2018 for eight and a half
hours. I did not really know what to expect when going into this observation assignment
because I have only ever been x-rayed once before this so I did not really know the process.

On Monday, March 5th 2018 I was there from 3:30pm to 8:00pm. I followed around the ladies in
X-ray for most of this night and saw MRI for a few. In the X-ray portion of the department,
Allison and Rebecca were completing the doctor’s orders the whole afternoon into the night. I
did not realize that their job also included transporting patients to the room and back to their
room. They were only authorized to call someone in Transport Department if the patient needed
to stay on oxygen or they could not move very easily to get in place for imaging to occur. So
they would receive the order, go get the patient, take the images, take the patient back to their
room, and then send the images to the doctors. On Monday, I saw mostly chest x-rays because
of older patients complaining of troubled breathing, persistent cough, or chest pain. A fun thing
that I saw among all the chest images, was seeing pacemakers on the images and seeing tubes
down the throat from intubation so the doctor can ensure it is in the correct spot on a portable x-
ray machine. The MRI I observed was for the lumbar spine of an older woman that stated that
she has had back pain for years now and it is finally bad enough for her to get it looked at. She
had a bulging disc of lumbar spine.

On Tuesday, March 6th 2018 I was observing from 3:30pm-7:30pm. When I arrived, the stack of
images to do was 9 deep and only Rebecca and Stephanie were in attendance. There were a
lot of outpatient x-rays that needed to be completed as they sit in the waiting room. I saw bone
spurs of the left foot, fractured phalanx, osteomyelitis of the foot, and an upper GI tract x-ray.
Along with those, I saw a lot of imaging done for lower back pain, knee pain, and chest pain as
well. I saw a lot of variety on Tuesday as well as a lot of numbers of x-rays. Monday felt more
slow to me compared to Tuesday.

I did learn some things in my two days in the Radiology Department. The major things that I
learned was that radiology is like the backbone of diagnosing problems with patients. Yes, the
technicians do not get to speak or verbally tell the patients what they see, so they are the middle
man. Radiology is a very important part of getting to the bottom of pathologies and reading
patient’s pain.