Latest / Cat Scan Guru Podcast / EP. 96 You're Not Slow in CT, You're Mentally Unstructured.

Transcript

EP. 96 You're Not Slow in CT, You're Mentally Unstructured. · Cat Scan Guru Podcast

• 0:01
  Hello, hello, welcome back everybody.
• 0:03
  Welcome back to the CAT scan guru podcast.
• 0:06
  Hope you guys are having an amazing week.
• 0:08
  Like let me tell you, I am ready for summer.
• 0:12
  I am so ready for summer. So if you guys aren't following
• 0:15
  along on TikTok, I started creating a series where I am
• 0:21
  doing like the next 60 days of a muscle mommy series.
• 0:26
  So every day I just take you and the day in the life of me
• 0:33
  getting summer ready. So it's one of those things
• 0:35
  that, you know, I like to tap in.
• 0:36
  So you guys know a little bit about what I do as far as just
• 0:40
  being ACT tech and just sharing maybe just a little bit about my
• 0:44
  life and things like that. So make sure you guys follow
• 0:47
  along on TikTok because that is where I have that series.
• 0:50
  And yeah, I just, you know, talk about all the things and just
• 0:56
  share some things as far as thoughts, because it's basically
• 0:59
  just a lot of it is not motivational.
• 1:03
  It's just a lot of discipline and just mental things because
• 1:07
  not every day we're going to be motivated, right?
• 1:10
  So make sure you guys follow along and lots of protocol
• 1:14
  videos will be dropped as well. So make sure you guys check that
• 1:18
  out and follow along. I know I've kind of, you know,
• 1:21
  ceased on posting on Instagram. I'm going to start reposting on
• 1:24
  Instagram. Just so you know, the audience
• 1:27
  over there is still like, where is she at?
• 1:30
  So 'cause I do get some DMS and things like that, like hey, you
• 1:33
  OK, yes, I'm fine, promise. It's just I have a lot on my
• 1:38
  plate because I run 2 brands and I'm doing like a licensing
• 1:42
  venture on my second brand that has nothing to do with
• 1:45
  healthcare. So that is, you know, another
• 1:49
  animal in itself. So yeah.
• 1:51
  So make sure you guys follow along on TikTok, subscribe to
• 1:54
  the show, share the show with ACT technologist that needs to
• 1:57
  hear this and need some educational things to know.
• 2:01
  OK, So in today's episode, we are going to be talking about
• 2:09
  you're not slow in CT, you're just mental, mentally
• 2:14
  unstructured. So I'm going to dive into this
• 2:16
  topic because I know this may be a little bit polarizing and I
• 2:21
  know that there's a lot of buzz on my TikTok page as far as the
• 2:24
  videos that I posted when it comes to, you know, CT being
• 2:29
  difficult with no structure. OK, So what I find is, is that
• 2:36
  there's a lot of new technologies coming into the
• 2:38
  modality and they feel like they're slow.
• 2:43
  They feel like they're overthinking.
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  And I can honestly tell you if you feel slow, it's not the
• 2:52
  speed. Believe me when I tell you it's
• 2:55
  your thinking and a lot of times it's who you're training under
• 3:00
  as well. OK, So what I want you to think
• 3:04
  about is, is I don't want to think.
• 3:06
  I don't want you to think about your speed.
• 3:08
  Speed comes from practice and repetition.
• 3:12
  So the more you practice, the more you, you know, practice
• 3:15
  those exams. You do those exams over and over
• 3:18
  and over again, you're going to acquire a certain speed.
• 3:21
  Like as a new technologist, I would not want you to go at the
• 3:24
  speed that I do. I mean, I got 23 years in.
• 3:28
  So I wouldn't want you to go at the same speed that I do.
• 3:31
  I would want you to develop your own speed as much as you
• 3:35
  practice. You repeat exams over and over
• 3:38
  again so that you get comfortable.
• 3:40
  OK. I see a lot of texts that
• 3:42
  hesitate, too. Hesitation doesn't come from,
• 3:48
  you know, oh, I'm not good enough.
• 3:51
  That's not where it comes from. Hesitation comes from
• 3:54
  overthinking and lack of training.
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  A lot of technologists do hesitate because of lack of
• 3:59
  training. Now, I've gotten a lot of
• 4:02
  comments on the video I posted about CT.
• 4:06
  You know, the CT training video that's pinned to the top of my
• 4:09
  TikTok page that there is no time to train, that the workload
• 4:14
  is so demanding, we don't have enough staff, we're short
• 4:18
  staffed and all of these things. Listen, I hear you and I see you
• 4:24
  because it's the same thing that happens in our department, OK?
• 4:29
  So lack of training because there's not enough resources,
• 4:33
  there's not enough available texts to train.
• 4:36
  A lot of them are getting thrown into the fire because the
• 4:40
  workload is demanding, the volume is high.
• 4:43
  You know, they're short staffed because they don't have enough
• 4:46
  people to work on the shift. That's where a lot of
• 4:49
  technologists hesitate and they tend to overthink a lot.
• 4:53
  And really, it's not your fault. It's just the way the workflow
• 4:58
  and the dynamics has been set up.
• 4:59
  It's not fair, OK, And it's just, it's, it's really lacking
• 5:06
  for a better term. So the one thing that we need to
• 5:12
  remember is, is that as far as the high demand, the high
• 5:18
  volume, the high workload, it can be very demanding.
• 5:21
  So I'm in the process of trying to create something where I
• 5:26
  could come in and train these techs so that departments, you
• 5:31
  know, at least have that responsibility alleviated from
• 5:36
  them. And then they could just have a
• 5:37
  tech that's ready to go. In a perfect world, that's
• 5:40
  exactly what we want, is to have somebody else train these tacks,
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  make sure that they're ready to go, let them go so they're ready
• 5:49
  to work on the shift. So I'm working on that.
• 5:53
  So make sure you guys stay tuned to that.
• 5:55
  Now confident texts when you feel confident, OK, You also do
• 6:02
  some critical thinking before you do a scan to make sure that
• 6:05
  you set up everything correctly to prevent any errors or any
• 6:09
  patient harm. So texts who are confident in
• 6:12
  their skills and it takes you know time to be confident in
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  your skills, OK, because you build that confidence.
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  So you tend to do critical thinking and things to make sure
• 6:23
  that you at least prevent minimize any errors or any harm
• 6:29
  to your patient. OK.
• 6:31
  A lot of times new technologists will feel behind and it's OK to
• 6:35
  feel behind. CT is a very complex modality.
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  There is a lot of fucking moving parts.
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  So I can't expect you to know everything in two weeks time.
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  It's physically and mentally impossible, OK?
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  There's way too many exams, way too many things to remember.
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  It's not even possible. OK.
• 6:55
  And with a high demand, high workload, we're rushing a lot
• 7:01
  and a lot of new technologists still have doubts.
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  Oh, can I really do this exam? Is this really done this way?
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  What if I miss a bolus? What if I do this and it's OK?
• 7:11
  Because you know what? Not every PE is going to be
• 7:13
  perfect, not every CTA is going to be perfect because patients
• 7:19
  have different cardiac output. Some patients don't have great,
• 7:25
  you know, cardiac output. Some patients, you know, have
• 7:30
  heart failure. So there's different factors
• 7:32
  that kind of affect the different types of quality of
• 7:35
  contrast that you get on certain exams.
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  Patient didn't hold their breath, patient was moving,
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  patient was uncooperative. There's so many factors that we
• 7:44
  have to deal with and it's perfectly OK to have some kind
• 7:48
  of doubt, OK? And then there's that overwhelm
• 7:52
  of the amount of protocols that we have and it's a lot, you
• 7:56
  guys, OK? And there's such a high volume
• 8:00
  of exams, which all these things are warranted.
• 8:03
  Believe me when I say it, it's all warranted, OK?
• 8:08
  And it's really hard to train the new technologists because of
• 8:12
  the workload and just the high demand of things in the short
• 8:15
  staff that we have. So these things are all
• 8:18
  clinically warranted. But I want you to also think
• 8:21
  about some things when you're out there doing your training
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  and you are executing exam, you know, does the exam match the
• 8:29
  reason that ordering it OK? This is just some really short
• 8:33
  critical thinking things to think about.
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  You know your contrast exam, you know, are you using the right
• 8:41
  amount of contrast? You know, are you going to use
• 8:44
  less? You're going to use more and
• 8:46
  making sure that you get nice contrast enhancement.
• 8:50
  You're selecting the correct protocol for whatever exam is
• 8:53
  ordered, right? And whatever they're trying to
• 8:55
  rule out. So those are just kind of some
• 8:58
  things to remember when you're out there executing exams so
• 9:02
  that you don't overthink, you don't hesitate, and that you
• 9:05
  have just a clear critical thinking pattern on how you're
• 9:09
  going to do this exam. Now, I know I get a lot of
• 9:12
  comments as far as, you know, training and lack of training
• 9:16
  and lots of texts have spoken up as far as just, you know, the
• 9:21
  amount of training that they got.
• 9:23
  There was one person that said they only got 2 weeks of
• 9:25
  training. That one.
• 9:26
  I, I was really shocked on that one.
• 9:28
  And then there's other people saying that they had their
• 9:32
  department structured where a tech trains for 10 weeks, then
• 9:35
  they're off and they're ready to go and they are comfortable
• 9:39
  scanning on their own. And there's others that saying,
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  oh, well, you should do this and that.
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  But lots of departments are not set up that way.
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  So we have to figure out a way that when the incoming texts are
• 9:52
  coming on because there's lots of younger generation people
• 9:55
  that are interested in CT. So we have to make sure that we
• 9:59
  have a structure in our training programs that they can go ahead
• 10:04
  and execute from A-Z so they know exactly what they're doing.
• 10:09
  OK, if you don't know, I have an 8 week training checklist.
• 10:13
  It's something that I put together on what I believe the
• 10:16
  new technologist needs to know. So make sure you grab that in
• 10:19
  the show notes if you want like a good perspective on how you
• 10:23
  should execute your CT training. Also, I have, you know, a
• 10:28
  protocol guide. So this is just 10 simple
• 10:31
  protocols that I've put together to help you out.
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  I even have a mini pocketbook that's got about 16 protocols
• 10:37
  that you could take. Put it in your scrub pocket and
• 10:40
  it'll help you set up your exams from A to ZI, give you an entire
• 10:44
  protocol, give you a scout to tell you from where to where you
• 10:48
  need to start and end and the different reformats that are
• 10:51
  required. OK.
• 10:53
  Now these are general protocols of things that I've done over
• 10:56
  the years. So it's very general.
• 10:57
  It does not replace your site's protocol or radiologist
• 11:01
  recommended protocol. So we have to do more to really
• 11:06
  improve our CT training and we have to really just hone in to
• 11:12
  make sure that the technologists coming in, they get trained
• 11:15
  properly. And it's really hard to do that,
• 11:19
  especially the factors and the conditions that we're in in each
• 11:23
  department. So that is today's episode.
• 11:26
  Hopefully that was insightful. If you have anything you would
• 11:30
  like to add, please send me an e-mail. e-mail is in the show
• 11:33
  notes. Make sure you come over to
• 11:35
  TikTok, follow on TikTok. Make sure you subscribe to the
• 11:37
  podcast so you get all the educational things in CT and
• 11:43
  tech tips. So thank you so much for
• 11:46
  listening to this episode. And I will chat with you guys in
• 11:49
  the next episode.