a question about nuclear medicine technologists?
September 26, 2009 by
Filed under nuclear medicine equipment
Would you say being a nuclear medicine technologist is “hard”? In a sense of work environment/equipment? This may sound like a simple and somewhat ignorant question but im trying to gain a little more information on the actual job situation rather than facts like salary and “they inject nuclear substances and work with machinery”. That information only really gives me an idea and doesnt really open the door to shed some light on just how strenuous the profession might be, as well as some of the issues and complications one might run into on a daily basis with such a job.
In short, i was curious if anyone could give me a little more information than what i’ve been finding, which would be alot of “they inject chemicals, put people in machines and look at colorful pictures on computers”. Because really thats far too vague to heed my curiousity.
it is a very challenging job and much depends on which end of the spectrum one works… I just chatted to a doctor who had to have extensive chemotherapy and he said how sorry he felt for the technician who was giving the dosage as he was of course fully aware of everything and wanted the guy to be ultra careful… there is also a mystique of working with something you never see – only the effects – this carries dangers with it and if you are methodical and careful by nature, the sight of many people getting better by magic effectively is a great thing to be a part of … On the other hand there are exciting jobs elsewhere – watch the simpsons to see how the run nuclear stations and the medicinal side is not much different just smaller scale … if you can get on the research side better still, just look how many Nobel prizes are won in this area, nuclear physics… finally we now know from antibiotics that bugs are smart and adapt and mutate so even when we find a medicinal cure the bugs will learn and we have to start again – look at MRSA, but with radiation the busg are killed DEAD and they cannot learn, so it is either final or not, and recnet advances in delivering radiation to the body mean we can pinpoint tumours to fractions of a millimeter and focus radiation into the specific areas only, I guess i am saying yes it is a great area and exciting…..what do i do – I manage research fellowships and exchange programmes so for example if a NMT in Jamaica wants to learn from his couterpart in UK, there can be an exchange programme.
The thing about nuc med is you have to be very careful with what you are doing. You are working with a radioactive material. Regulations are different from state to state depending on if you are an agreement state or governed by the NRC. There is a lot of paperwork involved and specific rules to follow. Every I must be dotted and every T must be crossed. You can be inspected at any time without warning. If you are part of a hospital you can also be inspected by Joint Commission and who knows who else depending on the hospital.
Also to consider is all equipment has to be maintained regularly. There are even regs for this.
As a tech you are required to be certified and keep up your certification with continuing ed credits and such (I think).
First and foremost is patient safety. One wrong injection could be fatal.