All right, so today’s blog post is going to be about a topic that seems very odd, but very important nonetheless, and it has to do with procedures that we do within the radiology field, whether it’s in x-ray, CT, MRI, Nuc Med ultrasound, any part of the radiology department does a set of procedures of some kind.
These are what I’m talking about beyond the general x-rays we take. I’m talking about, uh. Epidural injection, a needle biopsy, a needle aspiration, anything like that, that requires a little bit longer interaction with the patient, as well as putting a patient in a more uncomfortable position than we do typically.
This topic is so important to me because I see it as such. A downfall of new techs, students, seasoned techs, anyone, anyone having a bad day can even just be under this category. And that is we are failing to do our job as technologists to help keep the patient calm. So think about any kind of procedure you have done, and it sucks.
It’s scary, nerve wracking, anxious. You wanna know what the results are. All the different things are highly important to you. Well, when we have technologists and anyone in the radiology field that would be in the room during the procedures, who is standing there silent. That’s not helping calm nerves, right?
That’s helping exaggerate nerves. Our job as technologists is to put the patient first, and so that is something that I want to remind, not only new techs going into the field, current techs, senior techs, any kind of tech, think about how the patient feels in their shoes. Even if this is your fifth, sixth, even second, whatever injection that you did that day, that’s their first.
That’s the first time they’ve ever done this. That’s the first time they’ve maybe ever felt discomfort like this. That’s the first time that they’ve had to have a spot biopsied. It’s nerve wracking and scary, and it takes no effort for us to simply say, how was the weather outside? What did you do this weekend? Do you have big plans coming up? By doing that small talk that may seem so minuscule in the amount of things we’re doing, it can make or break a patient’s experience within our department. It can make them leave going, wow, I didn’t notice that procedure at all. I was too busy chatting about my grandkids, or, oh wow, that didn’t hurt at all, because I didn’t even notice.
That I got poked with a needle because I was chatting about my favorite sports team or everything I have to do after work. All of those things are simple, simple things that we can be doing as technologists to keep the patient comfortable and make the overall procedure go smoother, seem calmer, as well as make it a little better for ourselves overall.
As we work through our job and what kind of procedures we do, it can get monotonous. So you do three needle gutted biopsies in a day. That gets to be the same routine on repeat. However, that patient is a light of new air. It is a chance to say, Hey, is it nice outside? What are you doing?
It’s a chance to get to chat and not just focus on the same exact task, in the same exact order. It gives everyone a chance to breathe as well as does something just so simple that can make such a big impact for patients. I say that amongst all of the things as I have never had a patient leave a review or comment on an exam where their technologist was silent.
Right? Like they aren’t commenting, saying, oh, my technologist was great. The person who helped with my procedure was great. They didn’t say a word the whole time we did it. No, you’re getting reviews from the patients. That are saying, yeah, I got to talk about my grandkids. We got a connection made. I felt at peace because we made small talk beyond looking at this from being a chance to just make some small talk and make the patient happy.
It also, as a technologist, as a person, helping out in those procedures can be a great, easy safety component. Yeah, right. Like if you think about it, if someone goes into it and you’re like, yeah, they’re super nervous about the procedure or the needle poke or whatever, they get tense, right? They wanna hold their breath, they get just silent, tense up.
However, if they’re talking, you know, they aren’t as tense, you know, they’re breathing and you know, they’re conscious. Right, like if they are talking to you, if they’re making small talk, even if they don’t want to, they are conscious. They have not passed out from the needle poke, they have not passed out from nerves or anxiety. They’re not in their head about it as much because they’re holding a conversation with you. That, to me, is the easiest part of our job that makes the biggest impact to patients. Just talking to ’em. Just remembering that procedures that we do day in and day out are scary for patients that they don’t wanna be there with us because they’re in pain.
They’re getting an injection for pain. They’re getting a needle biopsy to see if they have cancer. They are getting fluid removed because they have too much fluid in their abdomen or in their chest or anything like. The times that they see us is scary to them. And sometimes we just really need to keep that in mind that that little conversations, those little things make a big difference for patients.
Put us in their shoes, right? Like, think about how it is for them. Would you want to sit in a room that is silent? No. No one would want to do that. They want to be in a room that is conversational, and even if that patient is like, you know, I’m not a talker. I don’t really wanna talk. I’m not worried about passing out, but I don’t wanna chat.
Get it all right. Definitely understand. However, then talk with the radiologist, talk with the other tech in the room. You know, just keep. The priority off of focusing on the injection or the aspiration or biopsy, keep the focus off of what else is going on, as well as letting them be calm, right? They’re taking their mind off of it.
You’re able to just help relax them. That, to me, overall, is so easy and important for us to do in our career. All right, so today’s blog post is going to be about a topic that seems very odd, but very important nonetheless, and it has to do with procedures that we do within the radiology field, whether it’s in x-ray, ct, MRI, Nu Med ultrasound, any part of the radiology department does a set of procedures of some kind.
These are what I’m talking about beyond the general x-rays we take. I’m talking about, uh. Epidural injection, a needle biopsy, a needle aspiration, anything like that, that requires a little bit longer interaction with the patient, as well as putting a patient in a more uncomfortable position than we do typically.
This topic is so important to me because I see it as such. A downfall of new techs, students, seasoned techs, anyone, anyone having a bad day can even just be under this category. And that is we are failing to do our job as technologists to help keep the patient calm. So think about any kind of procedure you have done, and it sucks.
It’s scary, nerve wracking, anxious. You wanna know what the results are. All the different things are highly important to you. Well, when we have technologists and anyone in the radiology field that would be in the room during the procedures, who is standing there silent. That’s not helping calm nerves, right?
That’s helping exaggerate nerves. Our job as technologists is to put the patient first, and so that is something that I want to remind, not only new techs going into the field, current techs, senior techs, any kind of tech, think about how the patient feels in their shoes. Even if this is your fifth, sixth, even second, whatever injection that you did that day, that’s their first.
That’s the first time they’ve ever done this. That’s the first time they’ve maybe ever felt discomfort like this. That’s the first time that they’ve had to have a spot biopsied. It’s nerve wracking and scary, and it takes no effort for us to simply say, how was the weather outside? What did you do this weekend?
Do you have big plans coming up? By doing that small talk that may seem so minuscule in the amount of things we’re doing, it can make or break a patient’s experience within our department. It can make them leave going, wow, I didn’t notice that procedure at all. I was too busy chatting about my grandkids, or, oh wow, that didn’t hurt at all, because I didn’t even notice.
That I got poked with a needle because I was chatting about my favorite sports team or everything I have to do after work. All of those things are simple, simple things that we can be doing as technologists to keep the patient comfortable and make the overall procedure go smoother, seem calmer, as well as make it a little better for ourselves, right?
So day-to-day life. As we work through our job and what kind of procedures we do, it can get monotonous. So you do three needle gutted biopsies in a day. That gets to be the same routine on repeat. However, that patient is a light of new air. It is a chance to say, Hey, is it nice outside? What are you doing?
It’s a chance to get to chat and not just focus on the same exact task, in the same exact order. It gives everyone a chance to breathe as well as does something just so simple that can make such a big impact for patients. I say that amongst all of the things as I have never had a patient leave a review or comment on an exam where their technologist was silent.
Right? Like they aren’t commenting, saying, oh, my technologist was great. The person who helped with my procedure was great. They didn’t say a word the whole time we did it. No, you’re getting reviews from the patients. That are saying, yeah, I got to talk about my grandkids. We got a connection made. I felt at peace because we made small talk beyond looking at this from being a chance to just make some small talk and make the patient happy.
It also, as a technologist, as a person, helping out in those procedures can be a great, easy safety component. Yeah, right. Like if you think about it, if someone goes into it and you’re like, yeah, they’re super nervous about the procedure or the needle poke or whatever, they get tense, right? They wanna hold their breath, they get just silent, tense up.
However, if they’re talking, you know, they aren’t as tense, you know, they’re breathing and you know, they’re conscious. Right, like if they are talking to you, if they’re making small talk, even if they don’t want to, they are conscious. They have not passed out from the needle poke, they have not passed out from nerves.
Anxiety. They’re not in their head about it as much because they’re holding a conversation with you. That, to me, is the easiest part of our job that makes the biggest impact to patients. Just talking to ’em. Just remembering that procedures that we do day in and day out are scary for patients that they don’t wanna be there with us because they’re in pain.
They’re getting an injection for pain. They’re getting a needle biopsy to see if they have cancer. They are getting fluid removed because they have too much fluid in their abdomen or in their chest or anything like. The times that they see us is scary to them. And sometimes we just really need to keep that in mind that that little conversations, those little things make a big difference for patients.
Put us in their shoes, right? Like, think about how it is for them. Would you want to sit in a room that is silent? No. No one would want to do that. They want to be in a room that is conversational, and even if that patient is like, you know, I’m not a talker. I don’t really wanna talk. I’m not worried about passing out, but I don’t wanna chat.
Get it all right. Definitely understand. However, then talk with the radiologist, talk with the other tech in the room. You know, just keep. The priority off of focusing on the injection or the aspiration or biopsy, keep the focus off of what else is going on, as well as letting them be calm, right? They’re taking their mind off of it.
You’re able to just help relax them. That, to me, overall, is so easy and important for us to do in our career. All right, so today’s blog post is going to be about a topic that seems very odd, but very important nonetheless, and it has to do with procedures that we do within the radiology field, whether it’s in x-ray, ct, MRI, Nu Med ultrasound, any part of the radiology department does a set of procedures of some kind.
These are what I’m talking about beyond the general x-rays we take. I’m talking about, uh. Epidural injection, a needle biopsy, a needle aspiration, anything like that, that requires a little bit longer interaction with the patient, as well as putting a patient in a more uncomfortable position than we do typically.
This topic is so important to me because I see it as such. A downfall of new techs, students, seasoned techs, anyone, anyone having a bad day can even just be under this category. And that is we are failing to do our job as technologists to help keep the patient calm. So think about any kind of procedure you have done, and it sucks.
It’s scary, nerve wracking, anxious. You wanna know what the results are. All the different things are highly important to you. Well, when we have technologists and anyone in the radiology field that would be in the room during the procedures, who is standing there silent. That’s not helping calm nerves, right?
That’s helping exaggerate nerves. Our job as technologists is to put the patient first, and so that is something that I want to remind, not only new techs going into the field, current techs, senior techs, any kind of tech, think about how the patient feels in their shoes. Even if this is your fifth, sixth, even second, whatever injection that you did that day, that’s their first.
That’s the first time they’ve ever done this. That’s the first time they’ve maybe ever felt discomfort like this. That’s the first time that they’ve had to have a spot biopsied. It’s nerve wracking and scary, and it takes no effort for us to simply say, how was the weather outside? What did you do this weekend?
Do you have big plans coming up? By doing that small talk that may seem so minuscule in the amount of things we’re doing, it can make or break a patient’s experience within our department. It can make them leave going, wow, I didn’t notice that procedure at all. I was too busy chatting about my grandkids, or, oh wow, that didn’t hurt at all, because I didn’t even notice.
That I got poked with a needle because I was chatting about my favorite sports team or everything I have to do after work. All of those things are simple, simple things that we can be doing as technologists to keep the patient comfortable and make the overall procedure go smoother, seem calmer, as well as make it a little better for ourselves, right?
So day-to-day life. As we work through our job and what kind of procedures we do, it can get monotonous. So you do three needle gutted biopsies in a day. That gets to be the same routine on repeat. However, that patient is a light of new air. It is a chance to say, Hey, is it nice outside? What are you doing?
It’s a chance to get to chat and not just focus on the same exact task, in the same exact order. It gives everyone a chance to breathe as well as does something just so simple that can make such a big impact for patients. I say that amongst all of the things as I have never had a patient leave a review or comment on an exam where their technologist was silent.
Right? Like they aren’t commenting, saying, oh, my technologist was great. The person who helped with my procedure was great. They didn’t say a word the whole time we did it. No, you’re getting reviews from the patients. That are saying, yeah, I got to talk about my grandkids. We got a connection made. I felt at peace because we made small talk beyond looking at this from being a chance to just make some small talk and make the patient happy.
It also, as a technologist, as a person, helping out in those procedures can be a great, easy safety component. Yeah, right. Like if you think about it, if someone goes into it and you’re like, yeah, they’re super nervous about the procedure or the needle poke or whatever, they get tense, right? They wanna hold their breath, they get just silent, tense up.
However, if they’re talking, you know, they aren’t as tense, you know, they’re breathing and you know, they’re conscious. Right, like if they are talking to you, if they’re making small talk, even if they don’t want to, they are conscious. They have not passed out from the needle poke, they have not passed out from nerves.
Anxiety. They’re not in their head about it as much because they’re holding a conversation with you. That, to me, is the easiest part of our job that makes the biggest impact to patients. Just talking to ’em. Just remembering that procedures that we do day in and day out are scary for patients that they don’t wanna be there with us because they’re in pain.
They’re getting an injection for pain. They’re getting a needle biopsy to see if they have cancer. They are getting fluid removed because they have too much fluid in their abdomen or in their chest or anything like. The times that they see us is scary to them. And sometimes we just really need to keep that in mind that that little conversations, those little things make a big difference for patients.
Put us in their shoes, right? Like, think about how it is for them. Would you want to sit in a room that is silent? No. No one would want to do that. They want to be in a room that is conversational, and even if that patient is like, you know, I’m not a talker. I don’t really wanna talk. I’m not worried about passing out, but I don’t wanna chat.
Get it all right. Definitely understand. However, then talk with the radiologist, talk with the other tech in the room. You know, just keep. The priority off of focusing on the injection or the aspiration or biopsy, keep the focus off of what else is going on, as well as letting them be calm, right? They’re taking their mind off of it.
You’re able to just help relax them. That, to me, overall, is so easy and important for us to do in our career.