If you have ever thought about becoming a medical imaging technologist, this article is for you. You'll learn everything you would like to know about becoming a medical imaging technologist, where medical imaging technologists work, how much they get paid, what kind of additional in-service training they need, how you can become a medical imaging technologist, impact of evolving technology to their career, some of the dangers involved in the job, when you can expect to retire and how you can make difference in the lives of the people you serve.
Being a medical imaging technologist can be stressing and challenging due to environment where you have to work and studies that you have to complete. However, it can also be fun and rewarding when you see your impact of you role in healing process of a patient. Therefore, it is very important that if you want to take initiative to pursuit this career to be motivated and passionate about it. Most people think that becoming a medical imaging technologist is only about taking images, but it also involves collaborating with other health professionals like doctors, nurses, radiologists, etc and interacting with patients at daily basis. That is why, communication, empathy and teamwork are essential for a medical imaging technologist. On other hand, technologists, need to prove efficient, rapidity and accuracy while operating different machines that are used in different modalities of medical imaging such as Fluoroscopy, MRI, Radiography, CT scan and so on. Technologists need also to demonstrate the ability of problems solving in complicated situations which are likely to occur in some departments such Emergency services in case of trauma.
Medical technologists do different tasks such as 1. Collaborating with other health professionals 2. Preparing patients 3. Preparing rooms of examination 4. Operating different machines end equipment. 5. Analyse images 6. Perform injections 7. Participate in quality control of the equipment
Medical technologists perform on a typical day different tasks either as single individual or as tea, and they can be different according to which kind modality where they work. This is example of technologist who works in conventional X-ray modality. His tasks include as follows: 1. Collaborating with other health professionals like other medical imaging technologists, nurses, radiologists, etc. 2. Welcoming patients and explain procedure of exam to be performed while adapting to needs of each patient. 3. Position the patient while following the procedures of exam. 4. Operating different X-ray machines. 5.Analyse images and perform the adjustments if it is needed. 6. Concluding exam while insuring that images have diagnostic quality and other comments that are related. 7. Orient the patient to the right place after the exam. Those are tasks that a technologist needs to perform on each patient. Therefore, he has to repeat them over and over to each patient while adding few tasks or removing some of them according to the situation if it is appropriate. During his shift, he has one break and the duration is determined by the department.
Medical imaging technologist can work to different places. Those are different positions you can have as MIT: Medical Imaging Technologist (MIT) in hospitals and private clinics: most of the technologists end up filling only these positions due to its availability, and they don’t require much experience and more studies. Management and coordination of Medical Imaging Departments: requires more experience and advanced studies in management, but offers higher salary. Application Specialist for Imaging Equipment: Requires additional training and offers higher salary Career in Sales of Medical Imaging Equipment and related products PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) administration: Requires additional training and offers higher salary Medical research Teaching: Requires University studies in teaching and offers higher salary Canadian Forces Health Services team
You can become a medical imaging technologist by completing 3-year program that offers College Diploma in Diagnostic Imaging Technology, being a member of Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists and Passing exam of an association of Diagnostic Imaging technicians.
As of Mar 24, 2024, the average weekly pay for a Diagnostic Imaging in Quebec is $49/hour.
For a technologist who has already completed college program for 3 years in Diagnostic Imaging Technology, needs only additional training to be able to work in MRI modality, but before, taking that training he can be able to work in other modalities without any problem. They could be exceptions for technologists who want to perform some interventions like Installing Pic-line as autonomous technologists. Such individuals also have to do additional training.
When it comes to medical imaging, the dangers of being a medical imaging technologist that are likely to be though at the first time are those one associated to the radiation exposure as most of medical imaging technologists works with X-ray. However, there are other dangers of being a medical imaging technologist, such as physical strain (in case the job involves physically demanding tasks, such as lifting and positioning patients.), chemical exposure (in case there is use of contrast agents or other chemicals which can cause allergic reactions), Infectious Hazards (in case there is contact with patients who have infectious diseases or bodily fluids) and psychological stress.
Saying that medical imaging technologists will be replaced by robots soon sounds like a joke because working as medical imaging technologist requires human judgments that robots lack. Every situation or patient requires different adaptations after judging the situation. Robots would not be able to handle clinical situations. It is true that artificial intelligence is now used in medical imaging, but it doesn’t replace human tasks. It is only used to double check results on images to ensure that there are not mistakes made due to human error.
Everyone who works in hospitals can retire at minimum 57 years old, but some can retire at 62.
To conclude, I hope managed to bring you new learning and the previous information helped you to know a little more about the world of the medical imaging technologists. It is an amazing job, if you like what you do. Thank you for reading This article.
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