u/moonheaux

1st year student 2nd clinical rotation here, I’m just wondering if there’s any other good tips on palpating the iliac crest and/or ASIS cause I know I can just walk that up and sometimes I can do that but sometimes I can’t tell if I’m feeling that either. I just wanna know if it gets better with time, because I really suck at it lol. My first site I felt myself getting better at it and I will say those techs were definitely willing to teach and made me feel a lot more confident doing it all on my own and now I’m at a different site and these techs just really don’t like palpating so I’ve been trying to do it without needing to but I’m just not that good at just looking at it yet. Plus I hear mixed things from the techs to use the belly button/not use it (I’d rather not.. I know those hang sometimes!) and some days I’m great at it but then other days like today I’ve just been too low cutting off the top a little bit and I feel like I’m going crazy! Even when I palpate I feel like I’m feeling it and then I see the x-ray and I’m just off and I feel stupid cause I just keep missing that prominence on my own! Of course it’s even mad harder on obese patients, and somehow they can just look at it and tell. (They’re all pretty seasoned, like 10-15+ years.)

Plus the techs just tell me do this, do that before I even get a chance to process whatever adjustment I needed to do so I don’t get to see how exactly they got that position. Idk, just feeling very incompetent some days at this site. I definitely feel like a very average tech. I know truthfully by the time this quarter’s over I will only have done 34 clinical days (I’m rotating through doctor’s offices at the moment, sometimes they’re busy but.. sometimes this one is just dead, so consistent practice is kind of not there either), so maybe it’s that, or maybe I’m just stupid. But yeah, if it gets better, please let me know!

Helloooo I’m in x-ray school and I’ve been looking for a flexible job while I’m doing that! I’m actually currently a PRN at Baptist but the department I’m working in really is short on hours and I get sent home a lot! (Used to nottttt be the case but it’s been kind of consistent now and I can’t be getting sent home all the time not getting hours.) it’s a pain because when they had hours I was basically making $26-30/hr.. but since our hours are so short now I might as well be making 0.

I’m actually in a bit of a bind cause I have a job interview lined up for Norton for PCA or i could potentially transfer internally at Baptist for their nursing assistant positions. So honestly, I know pay scale is different with experience but, does anyone know base rate for non-experienced PCAs at Norton and/or Baptist at the moment? A bonus on what their PRN requirements may be for both places? My current PRN requirement in my department is 2 shifts a month, which has honestly been pretty solid for me being in school (when i had hours lol), but I’m sure different departments have different ones. So I’m trying to get some insight on both places!

I’m a 1st year student in my 2nd quarter of clinicals and I’ve just gotta ask cause I’ve seen it both ways so I’m just wondering, when you all place markers do you typically put it on the patient or in the table/Bucky? I guess it’s what the situation calls for it but I swear I have trouble doing markers for a Spot or on the l-spine lol. I’ve also heard about left markers just getting lost in the Bucky so I kind of don’t love using the Bucky all the time knowing that lol. I do good about not getting it in the anatomy and definitely more obvious exams like PA Chest it’s fine. Although sometimes they get cut off in certain exams (or blown out sometimes???) Still learning though just thought I should ask. The equipment is here is a little off and older too in terms of going by the light field so I’ve been having to put them in the Bucky. I definitely have had more luck putting it on the patient for certain exams in my first site but I am trying to get used to putting them in the Bucky cause the techs here like doing that. (I’m in a limited tech program at the moment so I’m just doing basic exams so no portables or anything. Yes I plan on bridging!)

I’m a 1st year student in my 2nd quarter of clinicals and I’ve just gotta ask cause I’ve seen it both ways so I’m just wondering, when you all place markers do you typically put it on the patient or in the table/Bucky? I guess it’s what the situation calls for it but I swear I have trouble doing markers for a Spot or on the l-spine lol. I do good about not getting it in the anatomy and definitely more obvious exams like PA Chest it’s fine. Although sometimes they get cut off in certain exams (or blown out sometimes???) Still learning though just thought I should ask. The equipment is here is a little off too in terms of going by the light field so I’ve been having to put them in the Bucky. I definitely have had more luck putting it on the patient for certain exams in my first site but I am trying to get used to putting them in the Bucky cause the techs here like doing that. (I’m in a limited tech at the moment so I’m just doing basic exams so no portables or anything. Yes I plan on bridging!)

this shit is such a joke man. get a good stable job in a career I’ve been in 5 years ✅ good pay rate ✅ flexible for school ✅ has the hours i need ✅ then my job overhires, our work drops drastically in the last year, my hours get cut along with everybody else’s, that good pay rate? I’ll never see it because they don’t want me to work. I try to find anything to supplement this job and i look like a worthless piece of shit cause I’ve been in a non-patient healthcare career for 5 years. transferable skills don’t matter i guess. And man all these other jobs I’m applying to will never pay close to what my current job is paying. Not that I was ever expecting that. It’s just such a slap to the face cause I spent so fucking long hunting for this job and making it work for school. My career typically does not have flexible jobs like this. And the ONE job I found that was perfect of course has to drop its hours drastically.

I have a good paying job but it feels like I basically don’t cause they don’t have hours for me. I feel myself slipping away from school cause I’m busy fucking job hunting and attempting whatever little gig work is available than studying. (Everything’s fucking waitlisted, I’m tired of everyone telling me to just do that, ok! Let me just tell these apps to get me off the fucking waitlist! I’m ready to fucking work!) And wow everything is so much worse when you need a flexible schedule for school. (It’s xray school, so I have 2 unpaid 9-hour clinical days during the week! Already I’m a horrible candidate cause I can’t work 2 days out of the week! And holy shit, where are the overnight jobs?? That’s what I fucking need!) I might as well jump off a building. Do places really wanna hire? Cause it really doesn’t seem like it. This shit is a fucking joke

Kind of embarrassing and I know I know. Everyone’s looking for a job. Here’s another poor soul asking because at this point I’m literally driving around and dropping off resumes, I’ve had some supposedly great interviews.. then ghosted. I’m mainly looking for serving jobs where I can pick up at 4p-close and/or weekend night availability. Only days I can’t work are Mondays and Wednesdays cause I have 9 hour unpaid clinicals during the day those days (I’m in x-ray school). I have 5 years worth of healthcare experience and then a few years of mixed retail/office/warehouse experience before that. I have another job that used to be busy, USED to have hours consistently, and suddenly now it barely has any and very unusual for my industry and disheartening because now I’m barely working. So now I’m trying to look for something that supplements that. I really don’t know what to do. I’ve been doing doordashing and doing gig work in the meantime, instacart and all that is waitlisted for me. I just need some help. This job market is horrible. Indeed barely shows anything of value. I can barely cover my bills and I’m about to hit the negative. My schooling’s about to start back up, so now I’m gonna be job hunting and begging for my hourless job for what little hours they can let me work, and dealing with school at the same time. I just need some leads. And legitimate places that are actually hiring.

doing this 5 years and after traveling and going back to staff (ew), i’m reminded of why I somehow enjoyed travel more. terrible SPDs across the country show the same true colors the longer you stay there. I know a lot of jobs in healthcare have their issues but I’m gonna be honest this one has a HORRIBLE support system for all of us. one too many times I’ve seen our own management turn their backs on us and not advocate or attempt to lift us up or educate at all, and they rule by berating us and nitpicking every little negative thing they can think of, despite of how much of a good worker you are. And quite honestly? It’s fucking insulting.

It doesn’t even matter if you tell them ‘whatever, I’ll leave!’ Or even worse, get fired for no reason, or a fabricated reason! (And oh boy that sure does happen!) They’ll sit back in their backed up department with their hands tied like ‘oh, whatever went wrong?’ After driving away their best and sometimes most long-standing employees. I’ve seen this SOO many times. Oftentimes after an actual good manager leaves or retires. EVERY time that happens it goes to absolute shit. No place is perfect and stable for us. And there’s only so many facilities you can leave and hop around to, we’re not nurses, or any of these other healthcare jobs. Unless you’re in a heavily saturated SPD job market, which to me that’s hard to find unless you’re in California or something, your options are limited. If you are at a good place, be mindful of what makes it good, and if it’s your management, pray they stay for the length of your tenure. The SPD always goes up in fucking flames the minute they leave.

Honestly this is a vent. I’m sick and tired of this shit. Had a horrible weekend shift (alone at night of course + the rest of skeleton weekend crew), backed up SPD, literally managed to get caught up with needs at least, rest of backup looking like an absolute mess. Being hounded by a brand new manager with a business degree (SURPRISE SURPRISE) about only tracking one tray out of me in SPM for one day (literally a fucking lie? I saw my own scans for both days? Running around all fucking night and of course I scan all my shit! I’m not stupid!) I told her that.. honestly laid out what even caused this train wreck of a backup in the first place. But also a rundown of what the hell I did and went through because what the hell man. Oh yeah, let me fuck over the rest of the weekend crew, that’s so smart of me! Seriously?! Not even a question, more like, did you even do anything that day.. with the entirely swamped weekend we all fucking had. Like you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. We all did what we could, whatever you can do. That’s the motto right? My god, if I didn’t fucking do anything, the OR would be calling up a storm Tuesday morning about shit not being ready for them. Jesus Christ, I’m so over this job man. Damned if you do damned if you don’t. There’s a lot of things wrong with this facility tbh. Reported a lot of things to leadership that seem so reasonable as a regular tech to notify them with, equipment problems and whatnot, and being told oh okay, no… we’re not gonna do anything :) that’s normal! Like oh.. okay.. and just general gaslighting like I get looked at crazy for just doing my due diligence pointing certain stuff out so management can fix it and address it accordingly. Ohhh, they just don’t want to! Honestly? I feel crazy. They make me feel crazy genuinely.

I’m stuck in an LMR program right now in my state and I’m almost finished but now there’s even a waitlist at my private college to bridge us over because of limited clinical spot availability to bring us into a RT 2nd year cohort. We were originally told the bridge should’ve been seamless as long as we go through the LMR program (1-year) as normal and pass the LMR registry. Once we pass we can start the process in getting into a second year RT cohort. What we weren’t ever told until this point in the program (literally about to finish in September lol) is the limited clinical spot availability not only for my school but the other schools in the area. So now I just feel discouraged because i might be stuck with a limited license that doesn’t pay well/nor have many openings in the area to begin with :( there’s some.. but they’re only during the day. it honestly feels useless because you’d have to quit the minute you start RT school again. all LMRs can work in my area is M-F day shift which is when the program runs.

To be fair my school made it seem like the bridge was going to be seamless. One of my teacher’s already insinuating we’re about to struggle bridging over because the last LMR cohort that just graduated this month is about to struggle getting into their RT spots (if many of them are trying to bridge). If they’re about to have trouble, we’re about to have trouble. So yeah. I feel like I’m about to get stuck. Of course there’s no other bridge programs that exist for us either. I feel led astray and I don’t wanna say I wasted my time and hard work this past year I genuinely love xray and what I’ve learned so far I’m just so sad I’m about to get stuck with a limited license and have to wait god knows how long to continue on to full-RT. I’m even looking back into the regular xray programs in my area but I already know what I’m about to see and be told. Re-do everything I just did, if I even got in, because everywhere else is waitlisted 3+ years. So I don’t know. I feel discouraged. And kind of led on by my college but I know I know I’m an adult. To be fair, nothing on their website or catalog even in our RT/LMR orientation meeting mentioned anything about a wait between bridging over or anything. This was presented as an alternative pathway to full-RT at this college. But yeah. I don’t know. There’s not much advice to give. I’m gonna delude myself into hoping the wait isn’t as long as we’re all thinking :(