Working in a radiology department for clinical experience?

[psu228]

Hey all,

I graduated college in May with a few pre reqs left to cross off.. Truthfully I've since then questioned if Medicine was for me so I'm only taking one class at my local CC while working at my local hospital. I'm a "patient care assistant" and I'm told I will be placed in the radiology department since I have a science background and BA and what not.

Does anyone have experience in a radiology dept? I wanted to work in this hospital to gain clinical exposure, and hopefully help make up my mind if medicine is the career path for me or not. I was hoping for some patient contact and am concerned that would be negligible in this role.

Thanks for any insights!

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[QofQuimica]

It depends on what you'll be doing. Some areas of radiology have a lot of patient contact; certainly the radiology techs spend a lot of time with patients. My guess is that you will get patient contact as a PCA since your job will likely be to assist patients who are coming in for their scans. But if you're going to be sitting in the reading room with the radiologist all day, then no, that's not going to be a good clinical experience for you as a premed.

Why don't you try the job out and see what it entails? You can always ask to switch departments or find a new job if there's not enough patient contact.

 

[ReneeM]

My job as a CNA in radiology involved a lot of patient contact, but I think that's hospital dependent. I was responsible for observing patients (i.e. we have to monitor patients after a lung biopsy), transporting, screening patients before MRIs, and positioning patients for exams. I also volunteered to help in interventional radiology or with the rad techs in the ER as often as I could. I've worked in a few different units and it was on of my favorites.