http://www.pct.edu/schools/hs/radiography/mr.asp?utm_source=advanceweb&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=MRI

Free E-newsletter


Columns

Celebrating Rad Tech Week

By Kathleen R. Kennedy, MS, RT(R)(QM)

Posted on: September 25, 2012
View Comments (2)Print ArticleEmail Article
Share
reddit Newsvine Del.icio.us Digg
Yahoo! Buzz LinkedIn StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Mixx
Many departments across our country will be celebrating National Radiologic Technology Week (NRTW) this November 4-10. Some of you may be thinking ho hum, just another week, maybe a free lunch or token gift. According to the American Society of Radiologic Technologists, "The first NRTW was July 22-29, 1979. The celebration was moved to November to recognize the date Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered the X-ray, Nov. 8, 1895. The annual celebration promotes the important role medical imaging and radiation therapy professionals play in providing quality patient care and a safe health care environment. NRTW is about medical imaging and radiation therapy professionals. How you choose to celebrate NRTW is what makes it unique to the radiologic sciences."

There seems to be a designated week for every professional or public issue on the planet. The plethora is almost daunting if we are to be politically correct. So why does NRTW stand out as so important? Well first of all, it's all about us. All kidding aside, we as RTs play a vital role in today's healthcare dynamic. As the ASRT's theme so succinctly states: It's what's inside that counts! With hundreds of thousands of images acquired each year in our department, it's time to recognize all the technologists' dedication, commitment and expertise as well as thank them for a job well done.

In our department EVERYONE gets this recognition. From the techs to the admins to the file clerks to the RIS support team to the students. It takes a team to do the job we do and that's exactly what we are: a team. We usually kick off the week with a breakfast and our pastoral care department dedicates the mass intentions of the week to our continued health, compassion and healing mission.

Each modality puts together a themed gift basket to raffle off. Everyone in the department gets a ticket. And tickets are pulled each day of the week. Some of the most popular baskets have been a baker's delight, date night basket, coffee lovers, movie time and scratch off trees (scratch lottery tickets), cheers and spirits basket as well as the ever famous chocolate pretzel pies from The Bold Chocolatier.The raffles create excitement and it seems like each modality tries to top the other in terms of creativity. They also keep the baskets a secret until the time of the raffles.

We also do a display in the employee dining room with poster boards in terms of education during the week. One day out of the week, staff the table and play some fun facts about radiology games with the rest of the hospital staff members during the lunch periods. It creates collegiality, promotes knowledge of what radiology has to offer and provides an opportunity to put faces with the names on the other end of the phone.

A very popular exhibit tends to be the PowerPoint slideshow demonstrating interesting and odd radiographic images. One year we even turned this into a game. We displayed about 20 images and hospital staff members were given the opportunity to try and identify what the images were. There were radiograph images of sea shells, flowers, toys, odd things people swallowed like coins, spoons, scissors etc. This type of event does take some pre-planning. All year long we collect interesting images and save them to a file.

For a great week to be enjoyed by all, it takes lots of planning and dedication from a core of staff members. These people contact the vendors to sponsor the breakfasts and lunches. They are the ones who think of fun fact find word games or crossword puzzles to email to the entire hospital staff. They also do pick out a token appreciation gift. Since most of our staff members wear lanyards to display their ID cards, the committee selects a pin each year to recognize the professionalism and hard work that is demonstrated day in and day out in our department.

And lastly our keystone event is the John J. Magovern Memorial Fund lecture. Fifty years ago Dr. John J. Magovern and Sister Mary Constance, CIJ co-founded the Mercy Medical Center School of Radiography which has since graduated close to 500 radiographers. When Dr. Magovern passed away, his family established a memorial fund in his memory. Each year the Magovern lecture is presented to all members of the staff as well as our sister hospitals. According to Dr. Magovern's daughter, he felt continuing education was a cornerstone to life-long learning and the foundation of promoting radiology as a profession.

However you intend to celebrate, take pride in what we do and how we serve our patients. Happy Rad Tech Week!

Kathleen R. Kennedy, MS, RT(R)(QM), is senior director of imaging and physician support services, Mercy Medical Center, Rockville Centre, N.Y.

Management Corner Archives
 

I did several years of Radiology Week celebrations in my department. one of the items was an Image of the Day contest, placing a film of a different modality each day and have staff from the hospital come down and try to guess what the pathology was. prizes were drawn from the names of those who took a guess. i tried to get the hospital staff to come down and see where we were and see what we do. also a PP on a laptop in the display with images of pathology, modalities and the staff of the department . some colleagues had some great Xray memorabilia to display such as an old glass plate.

lorenza clausen,  RT(R)(CT)MR), ARRT, CRT,  Mercy General HospitalSeptember 26, 2012
Sacramento, CA

Although I am not a tech, I have had just about every test known to mankind and I have first hand knowledge of just how important these professionals are. They are not only competent in their jobs, but are usually very upbeat, caring and I've seen them calm nervous patients. Without these wonderful women & men who do all these procedures, doctors could not treat patients with the sure knowledge of what is wrong.For the most part it would be a guessing game, so I want to say THANK YOU to all of you. May you be recognized by all for all your good works.

Geraldine KennedySeptember 25, 2012
VALLEY STREAM, NY


     

Email: *

Email, first name, comment and security code are required fields; all other fields are optional. With the exception of email, any information you provide will be displayed with your comment.

First * Last
Name:
Title Field Facility
Work:
City State
Location:

Comments: *
To prevent comment spam, please type the code you see below into the code field before submitting your comment. If you cannot read the numbers in the below image, reload the page to generate a new one.
Captcha
Enter the security code below: *

Fields marked with an * are required.

View the Latest from ADVANCE

 
 

Search Jobs

Go
 
 
 

Search Articles

Search our archives for print and web articles.

Go >
http://www.roresources.com/quality-reports/
http://online.sjcme.edu/master-health-administration.php
http://www.advanceweb.com/sharedresources/ebook/2013/March/AC031813/AC2013_interactive.pdf
http://imaging-radiation-oncology.advanceweb.com/Webinar/Editorial-Webinars/X-rays-and-Science-From-Molecules-to-Galaxies.aspx
http://shop.advanceweb.com/?utm_source=imaging-radiation-oncology.advanceweb&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=tower&utm_campaign=NWBR613
http://www.iudmed.com
http://www.burwin.com
 
http://www.civco.com/ro/products/couchtop_overlays/universalcouchtop_le/

Professions

Get Involved

Resources

Corporate


© 2013 Merion Matters 2900 Horizon Drive King of Prussia PA 19406 800-355-5627