Latest / Cat Scan Guru Podcast / EP. 76 Q & A Episode: Answers to Common Questions I Get

Transcript

EP. 76 Q & A Episode: Answers to Common Questions I Get · Cat Scan Guru Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, hello. Welcome back, everybody.
• 0:01
  Welcome back, wonderful technologist.
• 0:04
  Happy Halloween. We know that Halloween is here.
• 0:07
  Welcome back to the podcast. All right, spooky season here.
• 0:13
  And then before you know it, we're going to get into
• 0:15
  Thanksgiving. I am not big on Thanksgiving.
• 0:17
  I'm more on Christmas because I love to watch my girls, you
• 0:21
  know, just open Christmas presents and do all the
• 0:25
  Christmas things. And, you know, there's good
• 0:27
  things that I plan for Christmas for them to do different
• 0:30
  activities. And, you know, we bake and we do
• 0:33
  all that stuff. I do that during Halloween too.
• 0:35
  So even though I've been out of it for a few years because COVID
• 0:38
  kind of changed the way the dynamics kind of went.
• 0:42
  So just a little housekeeping. Make sure you guys follow on
• 0:46
  TikTok because I go ahead and do a protocol of the week on TikTok
• 0:50
  and then I go ahead and share it on my Instagram and on my
• 0:54
  YouTube channel. So make sure you guys like at
• 0:57
  all the places, make sure you follow, excuse me and like so
• 1:00
  and make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel, subscribe
• 1:02
  to the podcast, send it to a technologist that needs to hear
• 1:05
  this shit and come get educated. OK, So make sure you follow
• 1:09
  along. And if you guys, because I know
• 1:11
  I've have had many requests, if you guys are interested in CT
• 1:15
  courses, I have a three for one bundle.
• 1:20
  It's three courses and one that is self-paced that it gives you
• 1:25
  basically all the CT basics when it comes to contrast the most
• 1:30
  common exams and just a crash course on CT one O 1.
• 1:34
  So if you're interested in that, the link is in the show notes.
• 1:37
  Pricing for all three other courses is 994.
• 1:40
  So there's a ton of videos, downloads, PDFs, things like
• 1:45
  that. So if you purchase that, you
• 1:47
  will also get the 10 episode audio series of the CT tech
• 1:52
  cheat code for free. So make sure you get in on that.
• 1:55
  OK, so the link is in the show notes.
• 1:56
  Also if you're interested in my private audio series, if the
• 2:00
  link is in the show notes. So it's 10 episodes where I kind
• 2:03
  of give you bite size information on things you should
• 2:07
  be learning in your CT training. OK, so it's $24.00.
• 2:10
  Make sure you get in on that. Also, you can check out my
• 2:13
  YouTube channel. I drop a lot of free content on
• 2:15
  there and you can share it. I drop a lot of knowledge and a
• 2:19
  lot of free content on my TikTok channel as well.
• 2:23
  So at the CAT scan guru in both places.
• 2:26
  OK, so let's get into today's episode.
• 2:29
  So I figured today's episode, we do a little Q&A section because
• 2:34
  I get a lot of comments and I get a lot of just questions and
• 2:39
  things like that on social media.
• 2:41
  So I am going to kind of go through my TikTok page and some
• 2:45
  of the comments and things like that that have surfaced that
• 2:49
  people frequently ask when they are on my page.
• 2:53
  Because once I put that out of video and they are a shit ton of
• 2:56
  comments. And it's very hard because I am
• 2:58
  a mom, I work full time and I also run a business.
• 3:02
  So sometimes it's hard for me to get through all the comments.
• 3:05
  So I figured I'd make this podcast episode so I can give
• 3:08
  you some juicy answers on some of the comments that are left.
• 3:12
  OK, so this is starting out with recently, which I am going to
• 3:16
  try to respond on my TikTok, you know, respond back on TikTok.
• 3:20
  OK, So somebody had commented, I had done this week's protocol
• 3:26
  video which it was discussing CTA grams, okay.
• 3:31
  And how we at the facility I workout we do a split bolus.
• 3:34
  Now this may not apply to your facility.
• 3:36
  That's why I always encourage in my videos to check out your
• 3:39
  protocol book because anything that I say in my protocol videos
• 3:42
  is very general and I think it's just general consensus because
• 3:46
  sometimes that is used everywhere.
• 3:48
  So this commenter had said with the double bolus protocol, do
• 3:52
  you not give any pre medication prior to the scan?
• 3:55
  To answer your question, no. The only time that we give any
• 3:59
  type of pre medication is if the patient has any contrast
• 4:03
  allergies and they need the CT scan.
• 4:06
  That is the only time we do that.
• 4:08
  So we do not give any pre medication whatsoever.
• 4:13
  I'm not sure if that's something that applies to if you're in the
• 4:17
  same, if you're in the United States because I am not sure, or
• 4:20
  in the country that you reside in, but we do not do that,
• 4:24
  another person had commented. It was a video that I had done
• 4:28
  about a little PSA asking CT tech's out there if their
• 4:34
  training was adequate. So this commenter has said I've
• 4:37
  been a CT tech for 21 years. I was taught to be a putt and
• 4:40
  pusher which I couldn't stand so basically taught myself in
• 4:43
  troubleshoot. So she troubleshooted and here
• 4:48
  let me see if I can bring up the comment and problem solve.
• 4:51
  Any time I teach people CTI teach them the why's in the
• 4:55
  house to do things not just what buttons to push.
• 4:58
  Love this response. This is exactly what I was
• 5:01
  looking for because this video had a lot of views and a lot of
• 5:05
  comments on here. So this one was very good.
• 5:08
  And I do the same thing where I teach everybody though the hows
• 5:12
  and the why's because it's not all about pushing buttons.
• 5:15
  You actually have to know what you're doing when you're in the
• 5:19
  room with the patient, and you also need to know what you're
• 5:22
  doing when you're behind that console.
• 5:24
  So another commenter, this is a young lady that had asked me for
• 5:32
  help. She let me see if I can find her
• 5:34
  original comment. Is 16 weeks adequate training at
• 5:38
  A at a level 1 trauma hospital? She's about to start an
• 5:41
  internship. So I did a video response on
• 5:44
  this one and I did give her two sides to my opinion on it.
• 5:48
  And I told her that 16 weeks should be sufficient amount of
• 5:51
  time to learn the core basics and to make sure she takes notes
• 5:56
  and asks the wise and make sure that she understands what she's
• 5:59
  scanning. And she had responded.
• 6:01
  First, thank you for responding to me.
• 6:03
  Second, thank you for responding so thoroughly.
• 6:04
  Thank you for the encouragement. She starts on November 17th on
• 6:07
  her internship, which I told her she's going to kick ass.
• 6:10
  You're going to do great. And I still stand 10 toes on
• 6:13
  that. OK, another one.
• 6:16
  Let's see, I'm just kind of going through the through the
• 6:18
  comments here. Now this comment or this was
• 6:21
  from a video when I was describing contrast media.
• 6:25
  So I had done a contrast media video on TikTok and it says if
• 6:30
  we can't afford to pay for contrast for CT scan, do you
• 6:34
  guys still get a good reading in CT to determine our hernia?
• 6:38
  I'm thinking I could have an inguinal one or around the hip
• 6:41
  area because I cannot afford contrast.
• 6:44
  Now what this says to me is that this is in another country where
• 6:48
  I am assuming I'm just going to throw it out there that contrast
• 6:53
  media is separate from the exam. And I have heard that this does
• 6:56
  exist in some countries. But here in the United States,
• 7:00
  yes, we charge for contrast, but it's all included with the whole
• 7:04
  exam. Like we can't exclude that and
• 7:06
  expect the patient to pay for it.
• 7:07
  So I'm going to answer your question on here.
• 7:10
  I'm also going to answer this on TikTok as well, where if they're
• 7:14
  looking just for a specific, and this depends on radiologist
• 7:18
  protocol, OK, typically hernias, we can give oral contrast and
• 7:23
  that should be sufficient. Now, if they're not worried
• 7:26
  about any other structures, you know, when it comes to the
• 7:29
  vascular system, you know, when it comes to organs or things,
• 7:32
  things of that nature, then I think oral contrast should be
• 7:35
  sufficient enough to display where wherever that hernia is.
• 7:40
  So you said it's, you know, inguinal around the hip, but you
• 7:44
  can't afford contrast, then they should be able to provide oral
• 7:48
  contrast. But from what I'm taking here is
• 7:50
  that you can't afford to pay for contrast.
• 7:53
  Well, that's kind of 5050. It depends on the size of the
• 7:57
  hernia. It depends if it's in case
• 7:59
  somewhere sometimes we can get away with not giving any oral
• 8:03
  contrast or any four contrast. And sometimes we can just do a
• 8:07
  without scan and that would be sufficient.
• 8:09
  But that would have to be up to your doctor.
• 8:12
  And what is the recommendation he would give?
• 8:15
  And those are questions you should ask her doctor.
• 8:17
  And you can also ask if you're going for the exam, you can ask
• 8:22
  the technologist and say, do I have to drink something?
• 8:25
  Can we get away with not drinking something?
• 8:27
  And they can go back and reference, you know, with the
• 8:30
  radiologist protocol to see if that's sufficient.
• 8:33
  It's the best answer I can do because I'm not a physician.
• 8:35
  So, you know, I have to stay within microscope of practice.
• 8:39
  OK. So let me see what other
• 8:41
  comments we got because I get a lot of comments on videos every
• 8:47
  day and I try to go through all the comments and it's it's a
• 8:49
  lot. Now another person had commented
• 8:52
  because I had done a series on TikTok on five straight twelves
• 8:55
  that I was working. They had said how many do you do
• 8:58
  in 12 hours? Do you have transportation?
• 9:00
  OK, so I'm assuming that's how many exams do I do in a 12 hour
• 9:03
  period? Sometimes it could be 30
• 9:05
  patients, OK. Sometimes it's more because a
• 9:08
  lot of these patients get multiple exams, like a whole
• 9:11
  trauma pant scan that's like 6 to 8 exams depending on what
• 9:14
  they're ordering. OK, sometimes it's 10.
• 9:16
  So I could easily do 30 patients in my shift.
• 9:20
  There have been times where I've done like 3540 and I've wanted
• 9:24
  to like RIP out my hair. It's not fun.
• 9:27
  So as far as transportation, yes, we do.
• 9:29
  We do have tech aids and we do have like a centralized
• 9:33
  transportation department in our hospital where we do get
• 9:37
  patients. So let's see what else we have
• 9:42
  because I do get a lot of comments, guys, a lot of
• 9:45
  comments. OK, let's see.
• 9:49
  Let's see what we got here. OK, so this one was also on.
• 9:52
  Is your CT training adequate? So sink or swim situation 18
• 9:58
  years ago, treaded water for the first few years.
• 10:01
  Started a job 11 years ago with texts older than me so let's see
• 10:06
  and actually learned why I was doing what I was doing. 18 years
• 10:10
  in. We have students doing
• 10:12
  clinicals, trying my best to explain and teach real life
• 10:15
  situations to new techs so they can swim and not tread water
• 10:20
  like I did for so many years. This is really good, OK?
• 10:24
  A lot of the people who commented on this video, which
• 10:28
  this video has about 13,000 views, all the comments were
• 10:32
  excellent, excellent. And I pose those questions all
• 10:37
  the time and I really enjoyed everybody's feedback because
• 10:40
  it's really nice to see. So another question that I get
• 10:47
  is or another comment that I got was cross trained X-ray.
• 10:51
  Cross training X-ray text ruined it.
• 10:53
  This is from the same video. A lot of the texts I've worked
• 10:56
  with don't know why anything is done, they just know how to do
• 10:59
  it. This is a really excellent
• 11:02
  comment and I think I'm going to do a follow up video response on
• 11:06
  this because it's a hit or miss when you are cross training
• 11:10
  folks from X-ray, OK? Because CT is not for everybody.
• 11:14
  OK, So we can agree or disagree, CT is not for everybody.
• 11:19
  CT is very high paced, it's very complex and you got to hustle
• 11:22
  your ass off. So a lot of times there are
• 11:24
  certain texts that think getting into CT because they want more
• 11:27
  credentials behind their name is just going to be an easy thing.
• 11:30
  It really isn't because you do have to work hard and you have
• 11:34
  to hustle and bustle and sometimes cross training can be
• 11:38
  sorry, let me back up CT. The learning curve, you know,
• 11:42
  is, is huge and some people pick it up really fast, some don't.
• 11:46
  And that's the thing. And The thing is, is that you
• 11:50
  also don't want to train people that are not going to know why
• 11:55
  they do something. They just know how to do it.
• 11:57
  There's a difference. There's a difference on how you
• 12:00
  do it and knowing why you're doing it versus just knowing how
• 12:03
  to do it and saying, oh, I don't know, we just do it this way.
• 12:06
  Grinds my fucking gears when people say that, that, well,
• 12:09
  this is what we've done for the last 10 years.
• 12:11
  No, because there are better ways to do it.
• 12:13
  Okay. But you're just being too close
• 12:16
  minded to expand your horizons a little bit.
• 12:19
  So sometimes, you know, sometimes cross training people
• 12:23
  from X-ray, you know, it's 5050. It depends on who you get, OK.
• 12:28
  And I know I've worked at places where we've cross trained folks
• 12:30
  from X-ray and they were not good choices because sometimes
• 12:34
  that happens, OK? And a lot of times there are
• 12:37
  other instances where you're like, fuck, yeah, this was a
• 12:40
  good, good decision because, you know, you know, depending on who
• 12:45
  you work with is going to dictate how strong, you know,
• 12:50
  you guys are together because working together and
• 12:53
  collaborating together is the most important thing.
• 12:55
  I had an old school technologist would always say this, You're a
• 12:58
  strong as your slowest tech. I don't know why he said that.
• 13:03
  I think it was a little bit better.
• 13:04
  You are as you are as strong as your slowest tech.
• 13:08
  And I was just like, OK, not that I would say anything like
• 13:12
  that ever, but you know, he 30 years in the business and just
• 13:16
  mean grouchy, he was like retirement ready, OK.
• 13:19
  But the dynamics of how your workflow goes, you know, you
• 13:24
  have to have strong people that you work with, you know, and
• 13:27
  making sure that you give them the tools and the guidance on
• 13:31
  how to go ahead and make sure that the department flows is
• 13:35
  very, very important. OK, so let's see if we got honor
• 13:40
  other, other other. So this one was really good.
• 13:45
  It's the same video from is your CT training adequate?
• 13:48
  So this is another comment. It says it all depends on the
• 13:51
  tech training. You've been doing it 20 years.
• 13:53
  But the new techs shy away from more difficult exams.
• 13:56
  I concur with that. Now, the reason I say that is
• 14:00
  because difficult exams can be very scary and it could be very
• 14:04
  daunting. And a lot of times you just
• 14:05
  don't want to make mistakes. I know I was in new tech once
• 14:09
  and yeah, I shield away from, you know, difficult exams.
• 14:12
  But when you take the bull by the horns and you do those
• 14:16
  difficult exams, it's going to just make you better with
• 14:20
  practice and repetition and just having some confidence you're
• 14:24
  going to breeze through that. I can tell you at my hospital,
• 14:26
  the most difficult exams, you know who gets them?
• 14:30
  I do. You want to know why?
• 14:32
  Because I know how to handle that situation and the techs
• 14:35
  that work with me know I know how to handle that situation.
• 14:37
  And that's why why they give me the most difficult cases because
• 14:40
  I know I can navigate through it and not fuck it up and provide
• 14:44
  like a really good optimal scan. But you have to take that upon
• 14:47
  yourself to make sure that you know how to operate during those
• 14:51
  difficult exams and how to get like at least some kind of
• 14:55
  optimal images. Because not all patients are the
• 14:58
  same. A lot of patients are sick,
• 15:00
  they're contracted, they're I'll, they won't hold still.
• 15:04
  Sometimes you have a lot of factors going against you, but
• 15:06
  how you manage so difficult exams is what is important.
• 15:11
  And I'm going to speak on the new technologists as far as this
• 15:14
  person's comment. Don't shy away from that.
• 15:17
  You need to take the bull by the horns and do it.
• 15:19
  That's going to make you a stronger tech and it's going to
• 15:22
  make you more knowledgeable, OK? It doesn't matter if you've
• 15:25
  never seen it. Get in there and do it.
• 15:27
  It doesn't matter if you fuck up, OK?
• 15:29
  Because at least if you admit that you made a mistake, that
• 15:32
  makes it better instead of not doing it at all, OK?
• 15:36
  Because how are you supposed to learn if you don't get in there
• 15:39
  and do it, OK? Now, the other caveat to this is
• 15:42
  when we're training, and I'm going to mention on this
• 15:45
  podcast, since because I do get a lot of comments and questions
• 15:48
  about this is, you know, technologists that are training
• 15:52
  new technologists that are just coming into CT.
• 15:55
  Can I ask you all a question? Why are we being mean to them?
• 15:58
  OK, why are we being, I don't want to say bullies, but I'm
• 16:03
  going to say that why are we bullying new techs?
• 16:06
  Because I've seen videos around TikTok where I see that even
• 16:10
  X-ray students are not even comfortable at their clinical
• 16:13
  site. So and the same thing applies
• 16:16
  with other modalities. Like why are we holding such a
• 16:20
  strong expectation to new technologists that are coming
• 16:24
  into CT or even X-ray students that are coming into X-ray
• 16:29
  thinking that they're supposed to know XY and Z?
• 16:31
  Isn't it your job to make sure that you train them properly and
• 16:35
  that you make sure that they understand?
• 16:37
  Because I'll tell you, just because you've been been an
• 16:40
  X-ray for however much long and then you decide you want to
• 16:43
  crossover into CT, please do not have that high expectation that
• 16:48
  that person's going to know everything off the bat.
• 16:50
  Like in two weeks time they should know everything.
• 16:52
  You know, it takes at least three or four months to really
• 16:56
  grasp the knowledge and to grasp those basic skills.
• 17:01
  I can tell you we have a technologist in our department
• 17:04
  right now when it comes to some of the difficult exams.
• 17:06
  Yeah, she will tell you straight out, I am not comfortable just
• 17:10
  yet, but if I can see you do it perfect.
• 17:13
  And that's all you need to know. And you know what, I'm even
• 17:16
  happy to walk her through the exam so that she knows exactly
• 17:20
  what she is supposed to do. But can we get back to just
• 17:25
  having kindness and, and just educating the technologists so
• 17:30
  they learn so that we can have better technologists out there?
• 17:34
  Because the moment that, you know, an X-ray student feels
• 17:37
  uncomfortable, they're not comfortable in their in at their
• 17:41
  clinical site. ACT technologist is not
• 17:43
  comfortable. You'll notice that like when
• 17:46
  those things happen, they shy away from coming to that site,
• 17:50
  or they shy away and they just say, OK, I need to get all my
• 17:53
  exams for my registry so they can take the test and go
• 17:56
  somewhere else. Can we stop doing that?
• 17:58
  OK, Because that just creates a very, very hostile environment.
• 18:03
  And it's not the way that we should act and it's not the way
• 18:06
  that we should train people. You can't have that high
• 18:08
  expectation and think, oh, well, they should know XY and Z.
• 18:11
  It doesn't. Four weeks of training is not
• 18:14
  going to show. It's not going to process.
• 18:17
  You have to remember there's so many CT exams out there that you
• 18:21
  have to learn and in four weeks they're not going to jam all
• 18:24
  that shit into their brain. OK, so let's start out with just
• 18:29
  the basic stuff and that's why I give you an 8 week checklist so
• 18:33
  that you have a guide on to know what you should be learning,
• 18:36
  where you should start, and how you should execute.
• 18:39
  OK, so make sure you grab it in the show notes.
• 18:41
  So please, that is one of the things that I get a ton of
• 18:45
  comments on my social media about stuff like this, OK?
• 18:49
  And a ton of comments about how you're showing the hows and the
• 18:52
  whys and some of these technologies just don't care.
• 18:56
  Now, because there is a flip side to it.
• 18:58
  If you don't care, you don't want to be there and you're just
• 19:00
  doing it for the credentials, then maybe you're not in the
• 19:02
  right spot, OK? So because you have to do
• 19:05
  healthcare because you want to help people, this is not just a
• 19:08
  paycheck. These are people's lives that
• 19:10
  we're dealing with. So those are my two cents on
• 19:12
  that. So that is it for this episode
• 19:15
  as far as Q&A and some of the comments that I get on social
• 19:19
  media. So of course, if you want to
• 19:22
  comment or something, just make sure you know, you drop a
• 19:25
  comment on my TikTok, Instagram, e-mail, DM, whatever the case is
• 19:30
  on any questions that you might have.
• 19:31
  Make sure you check out the show notes for all my courses, the 10
• 19:35
  episode audio series and the freebie checklist.
• 19:39
  So make sure you guys get in on that.
• 19:41
  OK, So thank you so much for listening to this episode and I
• 19:45
  will check you guys out in the next episode.