Factoid #1495

Recent reseach has shown that playing your music real loud in your car with the windows down DOESN'T, in actuality, make you cool.

Invite to Joost

Can anyone send me an invitiation to Joost? It looks great and I'd like to test out the Beta version, but I need an invite to Joost to be able to test it out. Can anyone help me with this? You can email it to arizonadb2005@yahoo.com.

Thanks guys!

Cars...Who needs 'em? Unfortunately, I do!

Well, I think my car is finally starting to die. It only has about 115,000 miles on it, but about 45,000 of those have been put on in the last 8 months. I guess it has held up for me pretty well up to this point, but I was hoping it would last until I was done with school and actually had a job and could afford to buy a nice new one.

I'm trying to figure out a time I can get it into the shop without severely restricting my mobility for clinicals. I have to drive about 65 miles to clinicals each day and 150 miles to class in Phx on Mondays, so I rely on it a lot.

The place I take it to here in Flagstaff is one of the few places that don't screw you, so needless to say they are usually pretty busy. Which means I have to call ahead of time and make an appointment to get in. Crazy huh? Anyway, the logistics of it are a real pain in my arse, and I always dread trying to get my car in when its most convenient for my wife and I.

Anyway, that's what's going on with me. On a radiography note, I have been on the other side of the hospital all this week in the Out-patient dept, which has been a nice change. It gives me a break from all the stupid drama of the in-patient rad dept. Tomorrow I hope to get a chance to work in CT for a few hours. The CT tech who works on Fridays is a great teacher, not to mention a cool guy and he usually doesn't mind explaining things to me and taking the time to teach. We'll see how it goes. Fridays are usually especiallly busy in CT, so I better start lacing up my running shoes now. Have a great Friday everyone.

Changes

You may have noticed the new title and banner for my blog. I have changed the title from Desert Imaging to Mountain Imaging, since I'm not down in Phoenix any more. The banner photo is of the San Francisco peaks which is a small mountain range just north of Flagstaff, Arizona, which is where I live, will be doing my last clinical rotation and hopefully get a job once I'm done with school.

Anyway, I hope you like the new look.

Clinical Challenges

You would think that the hardest and most challenging part of a clinical experience would be learning new skills, interacting with patients and following hospital policy. But, as it turns out at least for me, the most challenging part is getting along with my coworkers.

All modesty aside, I would say that I'm a pretty smart person and can acquire new skills rather quickly if given the chance, and so the "skills" part of clinicals has not been especially challenging for me. And in general I almost always develop a good rapport with my patients, assuming of course, that they are not delirious or unconscious or something. But, for the first time in my life, I am having a hard time getting along with my coworkers.

I have been told that radiography generally attracts people with strong personalities, but it seems that my clinical site has taken that theme and run with it. I am, at least in my opinion, a pretty amiable person; I like to go with the flow and can make friends quickly, but I have had the hardest time fitting in with the other techs at my site. I try not to take it personally and tell myself it's because I'm a student and at the bottom of the heirarchy that no one asks my opinion or listens to my suggestions, but that will only take you so far, you know. Maybe I'm being too sensitive, maybe I should suck it up and stop caring what people think about me. This idea is all good in theory, but putting it into practice is another story.

I guess in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter. I will be leaving that hospital in a few weeks and never plan to return to it, but at the same time I do value peoples opinions of me and find it hard not to be taken seriously. I really hope, though, that it just happens to be this group of people and that at my next site and eventually where I work will have a more supportive, positive atmosphere. I guess in a few weeks, I'll find out.

Anyway, I'd like to hear from some other x-ray tech students or techs out there who have also had this problem. How did you get around it? All comments and suggestions are welcome.

Plateau

January 3rd! I can't believe it's been since January 3rd that I have updated this blog. What a slacker I have become. But I have an excuse. 850 miles and 16 hours in the car a week, PLUS 32 hours at clinicals and 4 hours a class really cuts into your blogging time, you know. But alas that is no excuse to neglect my readers.......if I even have any left.

The last couple months have been rather "blah" for me. I guess I had hit a slump. I had kind of plateaued in my learning. I had learned enough to get by and, for whatever reason, I stopped challenging myself, stopped stepping out of my comfort zone. Call it the Winter Lazies. Anyway, Spring has sprung here in northern Arizona and I have begun to take a more proactive stance at clinicals.

During the last few months things had not been going well for me at my clinical site. My Clinical Instructor (CI) dumped me in February, so I had to scramble to find a new one to take me on, with no help from my school. Several people left the department whose positions had to be filled by some rather surly travel techs. And I had gotten pretty fed up with spending a good chunk of my day stuck in the car.

But luckily things have turned around. I have a new CI who is a great teacher and very patient with my questions and problems. I had worked with her before and was very glad that she agreed to be my new CI. Some of the travelers have left and the ones who have stayed I have started to get along with a little better. And I finally found out where I will be for my next clinical rotation and I was fortunate enough to get my first choice. It's a hospital in the town I live in and my 75 minute commute will turn into a 7 minute commute in approximately 36 days and 15 hours........not that I'm counting or anything. So, in a nutshell, things are starting to lookup.

I have to admit that I have gained a good base of knowledge at this first clinical site, but I am ready to move on and work with some new people and experience new challenges. My next clinical site will offer a lot more in the way of trauma imaging and OR experience, two of my more weak areas, so it will be good for the "learning process". I hope to update this blog more frequently in the next couple months, too, so check back often.

I hope everyone else who reads this blog is doing well in their classes/clinicals/jobs and please feel free to leave questions, comments or suggestions.

Good luck and be safe out there!