Latest / Cat Scan Guru Podcast / EP. 98 Why Some CT Technologists Freeze During Their CT Training

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EP. 98 Why Some CT Technologists Freeze During Their CT Training · 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 awesome week.
• 0:09
  And yeah, I am ready for summer. So if you haven't caught my
• 0:12
  series on TikTok, so make sure you follow the cat scan guru on
• 0:16
  TikTok. I am doing a muscle mommy series
• 0:18
  where I'm taking all of you on the journey of me getting summer
• 0:22
  ready. So and you will see the results
• 0:26
  at the end after 60 days. So for the next 60 days I am and
• 0:30
  taking you guys on the journey on my Muscle Mommy series.
• 0:33
  Now fitness is not something that's new to me.
• 0:36
  I have done fitness up and down, up and down so many times over
• 0:39
  the last 20 years. And for the last three years I
• 0:42
  have just made it my therapy. Yes, Jim is my therapy.
• 0:46
  So honestly, I look better at 48 years old than I did when I was
• 0:51
  28. So I'm pretty proud of myself.
• 0:54
  So make sure you guys follow along for that journey because
• 0:56
  it's going to be good stuff. Also make sure you guys
• 0:58
  subscribe to the YouTube channel.
• 1:00
  Lots of educational stuff is dropping on the YouTube channel
• 1:03
  and subscribe to the podcast and send it to ACT Technologist that
• 1:06
  needs to listen to some educational resources and get
• 1:11
  some value out of their CT training listening to this
• 1:14
  podcast. So make sure you guys do that
• 1:18
  and also wanted to share. There's also a guest coming to
• 1:23
  the Cat Scan Guru podcast. Can't reveal it just yet, but as
• 1:27
  soon as that episode drops, I will let you guys know.
• 1:30
  So guest is coming to the Cat Scan Guru podcast.
• 1:33
  So stay tuned for all of that and any resources that you might
• 1:37
  need during your CT training. Make sure you check out my link
• 1:40
  tree in the show notes. It's got the awesome CD
• 1:43
  protocols guide, the pocketbook courses, it's all available for
• 1:48
  you for your CT needs. So make sure you guys go check
• 1:51
  that out. OK?
• 1:52
  In today's episode I want to talk about why some
• 1:56
  technologists freeze during their CT training.
• 2:00
  This is a common phenomenon that I have had when I was a new
• 2:05
  technologist, OK, I mean when I was a new technologist, and I
• 2:09
  know I share the story all the time, Like there were no CT
• 2:12
  programs at that time. There was no CT boot camp.
• 2:16
  There was no books really out there.
• 2:19
  There were no courses. There was actually nothing.
• 2:23
  I think it was like a few books. So it was the MICCT registry and
• 2:28
  the CT trainer book and maybe like a cross section anatomy and
• 2:32
  then the Mosby's. Those were like the resources
• 2:36
  that were available out there. So you had to rely on whoever
• 2:40
  was training you and a lot of it was on the job training at that
• 2:44
  time. I know now there's, you know,
• 2:45
  community colleges that have, you know, programs and you know,
• 2:50
  there's CT boot camp and ASRT has a program.
• 2:54
  There's a lot of stuff out there, you know, Co relief
• 2:57
  learning has, you know, a program as well.
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  So there's lots of things out there now, but back in 2002,
• 3:03
  there weren't those resources like CT boot camp was not a
• 3:06
  thing. So I would freeze a lot during
• 3:09
  my training because I was overwhelmed, because CT was
• 3:14
  overwhelming and I made a lot of fucking mistakes and I had to
• 3:17
  learn a lot of things through trial and error.
• 3:20
  So I would freeze a lot because I didn't understand the concept
• 3:24
  or the whys behind what I was scanning and what I was doing.
• 3:28
  O If you've ever frozen mid scan, This is why because CT is
• 3:33
  overwhelming. There's a lot of variables,
• 3:35
  there's a lot of exams, there's a lot of complexities.
• 3:38
  Lots of patients are not textbook.
• 3:41
  You know, you get very sick patients, very critical
• 3:43
  patients, patients who are contracted.
• 3:46
  They are combative. You get just all walks of life
• 3:52
  that can be overwhelming. And not every scan is going to
• 3:55
  be textbook and not every patient is a walkie-talkie, OK?
• 4:00
  So it can be very overwhelming, especially when you deal with a
• 4:03
  critical patient and you have to position them and you have to be
• 4:07
  careful because there's all kinds of lines.
• 4:08
  You know, they're intubated, you know, they have ECMO, they have
• 4:12
  chest tubes, They have all kinds of things.
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  So that's what may cause a lot of text to freeze and be like,
• 4:19
  oh, my goodness, like, how do I deal with all these variables
• 4:22
  and all these factors? OK, One of the things, and I
• 4:25
  know I talked about this not even on my TikTok channel, but I
• 4:30
  talk about it here on the podcast, is there's really no
• 4:33
  structure or like a setup framework or just, you know,
• 4:40
  like a department structured training program that exists out
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  there. Because you can go to a program
• 4:49
  ACT program at a university or a college.
• 4:53
  However, when you're in the department, like that has to be
• 4:57
  structured. You have to structure it in a
• 4:59
  way that you're training the technologist properly.
• 5:03
  Now, I've had a few people comment on some of my tech talk
• 5:05
  videos that actually have this set up, which is amazing.
• 5:09
  But I can tell you the other 95% of other facilities don't really
• 5:15
  have something that's very structured.
• 5:18
  I've had, I've heard people say they got two weeks of training.
• 5:21
  Other people say that, well, my job sent me to, you know, ACT
• 5:25
  program. And then when I was doing my
• 5:27
  clinical rotation, that's when I had to get all my competencies.
• 5:33
  One thing is it's just because you're registered doesn't mean
• 5:38
  that you're confident and you know exactly what you're doing.
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  I know lots of technologists that go out there and get a
• 5:45
  registry have no clue what they're doing.
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  And I know this is going to trigger some of you, OK?
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  But listen to me when I'm telling you there has to be that
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  framework, that structure, just a structured program in on the
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  department level because that's very important.
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  Because CT programs as far as in, you know, community colleges
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  and universities, they're not going to have that set up
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  because every facility is different on how they do their
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  process, how they execute their exams, what the radiologist
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  protocols are, right? So there could be a fear of
• 6:19
  mistakes and not knowing. So they can be fearful of me
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  making mistakes. And we all make mistakes.
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  We're human, OK, And it is very important, very just critical
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  that you recognize the mistake immediately and know how to
• 6:36
  correct it so it doesn't happen the next time.
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  So a lot of times, if the training structure is not set up
• 6:44
  for success, there could be a lot of mistakes happening and
• 6:49
  you're not even knowing it. OK, then comes hesitation.
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  Technologists will hesitate because they're unsure of, OK,
• 6:58
  is this the right amount of contrast?
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  Is this the right protocol or is my box set up correctly?
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  Do I have all my reformats correctly?
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  You know, everything that's going to reconstruct so I can do
• 7:10
  my corona and sagittal reformats.
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  Is it, is it correct? So with that comes a lot of
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  anxiety and second guessing. So we have to set up our
• 7:20
  department training programs efficiently so that we can set
• 7:24
  them up for success. So how do we do this?
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  Well, we need a simple workflow. I have an awesome free 8 week
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  checklist that I've put together on some things that I feel as a
• 7:35
  new technologist that you need to know.
• 7:37
  So make sure you check that out in the show notes.
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  It gives you like a simple workflow on what you need to
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  know as far as, you know, executing your training
• 7:45
  correctly. OK.
• 7:47
  And then you need a repeatable system, so making sure that the
• 7:51
  technologist knows their core exams.
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  So that's your heads without your abdomen and pelvis with
• 7:56
  your PE studies, your stroke protocol, and you know, whatever
• 8:00
  else that they need to know. So to make sure that they repeat
• 8:04
  and just hone in and make sure that they execute correctly
• 8:10
  those core exams. OK.
• 8:14
  And then it's building trust, making sure that fairness,
• 8:18
  respect and trust goes a long way when it comes to
• 8:22
  technologists. OK.
• 8:24
  It is so vital because I know I was a supervisor years ago and I
• 8:30
  had that supervisor role for about 8 years when the text
• 8:35
  would see me in the trenches working just as hard as them.
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  I can't tell you the level of respect that I got from them.
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  And I never have to worry about any call shifts being not picked
• 8:48
  up or any extra shifts just sitting there available.
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  I'll tell you all the techs would pick up shifts.
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  They would pick up all the call shifts because all the extra
• 8:57
  call shifts that were there, I would pick them up if nobody
• 9:00
  else did. And I would repeatedly get
• 9:03
  people that say, can I just can I just take this because I'll
• 9:06
  make double the money and I really need it?
• 9:08
  Sure, absolutely. So fairness and respect and
• 9:11
  building trust is super important because that is the
• 9:15
  path to success. Now, when it comes to making
• 9:19
  sure that you pump out good technologists, yeah, a lot of
• 9:22
  them are going to be uncomfortable because growth
• 9:25
  requires you to be uncomfortable.
• 9:28
  And sometimes you have to make sure that you are doing the job
• 9:32
  correctly and making sure you can do the job correctly.
• 9:36
  CT is not built for everybody, OK?
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  Not everybody can do this modality because it, you know, a
• 9:43
  lot of wear and tear on your body because you're moving
• 9:45
  patients to and from the table. There is a lot of hustle and
• 9:51
  bustle. You know, a lot of times you
• 9:53
  have to take your patients back, pick up your patients, you know,
• 9:57
  and sometimes we're moving patients on our own, OK?
• 10:01
  There is just a lot of protocols to remember in a lot of things
• 10:05
  that we have to do after we scan the patient to make sure that we
• 10:08
  give the radiologist all the information that they need, OK,
• 10:12
  You know, versus charting, you know, reformats, you know, 3DS,
• 10:16
  you name it, we have to do it. So what I want you to take away
• 10:20
  from this episode is, is that we need to have just a very clear,
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  concise workflow when it comes to our department training
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  programs, making sure that technologists have those core
• 10:33
  exams, that is repeatable, A repeatable system, and make sure
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  that there's fairness, there is respect and trust so that you
• 10:43
  can have some successful technologies just run in that
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  department. OK, so that is it for today's
• 10:50
  episode. So make sure you all check out
• 10:52
  the show notes for all the good details that I discussed in the
• 10:55
  beginning of the episode. And make sure you subscribe to
• 10:57
  the podcast so you can get the latest and greatest episodes,
• 11:02
  you know, when they're available and share it with the
• 11:04
  technologist that needs to hear it.
• 11:06
  OK. So thank you so much for joining
• 11:08
  me in this episode and I will chat with you guys in the next
• 11:11
  episode.