Clinical post #5

MRI hasn't been busy this week. About normal, I haven't seen anything new or interesting. However, I would like to say that it always makes you feel good when you help people out. I had an in-house patient come down and after screening her she said she wouldn't be able to do the exam. The exam was a MRI head. I talked to her, explained the exam. I told her I would be right her the entire time. She let me take her into the scan room and I kept reassuring her that I would be here for her, if not directly in the room right outside. I touched her leg the entire time I put her in the machine and stayed with her until she said she was fine. I talked to her between each sets of scan and she made it through the entire head. When I brought her out, I told her I knew she could do it. She was so happy that she got the test over and that she did it. She kept thanking me. It makes you feel good to help someone out. That one experience make the rest of the week better.

Very Busy and New Experiences- Post #4

Today I was working in MRI and we were very busy. Lately we have been busy and we have been doing exams that I haven't seen that often. Yesterday, the department did a heart. Unfortunately, I did not get to see that. I have never gotten to see a heart, but they showed me the scan today and it was very interesting. Today however, I did get to see a chest MRI for the first time. The patient was very cooperative and the scan turned out very pretty. The patient was in the MRI machine for a very long time. We were to particularly pay attention to the 7th rib. I thought this exam was very pretty for the lungs but for ribs I didn't think it showed very much. I also think the radiologist wondered why we were doing a MRI for ribs. Even though it didn't show the ribs very well, I was happy to see this exam done.

Helping People

One of the reasons I love MRI is the feeling I get when I help patients out. We do several IV sedation cases. Some patients are very claustrophobic, others are in so much pain they can't lay there for the exam or both. I work at the main hospital at Owensboro Medical Health System and if patients go to an outpatient facility for their MRI and can't go through with it because of being claustrophobic or in pain, they get rescheduled to come to the hospital. We have a departmental nurse that does our IV sedation. We did an IV sedation case today and the patient was very nervous. I stayed with the patient and talked to them the entire time the nurse was giving the medicine and after the exam was done, the patient was so relieved that they made it through it. They were so appreciative and kept thanking me the entire time I was showing them to the front of the hospital. It makes you feel good to know you helped someone get through something so traumatic.

Software Upgrade

This week our entire MRI staff is in training because we have upgraded our software from 9.1 to 14.0. We got the upgrade at the end of December and it took several weeks for them to put the software in. I have been in MRI for several years and now it is like I am starting all over. This upgrade is great, however we have to do all scans differently now. The pictures are clearer, especially on MRI-Abdomen's. Once we get used to the new software and learn what all it can do, it will be great but for now it is giving me a headache like when I first started training years ago. We have scans now like, Merge, Cosmic, Propellar, Asset and other things I don't even know how to use yet. It will take time but once we get used to it everything will be great.

Unproductive Day

Today was a very different day in MRI. I have worked in MRI for several years, but this day in the department was very odd. Our 7am patient was an in house patient that came down for their MRI. The patient was unable to do the exam because the anatomy that we were to MRI was broken. The floor wanted us to do IV sedation so we could manipulate the part, however, our radiologist spoke with the ordering doctor and it got cancelled. The next in house patient we got down was claustrophobic and couldn't go in the machine, so we had to send them back upstairs. Our 9am patient was an oral sedation and we spent 2 hours waiting for the sedation to kick in and when it did it had the opposite effect on the child. He became very hyper. We couldn't do the exam. It is now 11am and we have yet to do one patient. We sent for one more in house patient before going to lunch. We got them done, but we had several repeats and some pictures had motion on them. We finally go to lunch, exhausted but from what? At 1pm, we get another in house patient down to do an abdomen MRI. The patient refused to go in the machine. We called the floor and the nurse came down to talk to the patient. She gave the patient medicine and it took us until 3:30 pm to get the exam done. We had several repeats, but we got it done. One shift and only two patients got done with an entire screen full of patients to do. MRI is very challenging and on some day's you feel like you are going around in circles, but I love working in MRI. You just have to take the good with the bad. There are very few bad days, but when they come it seems to come at full force.

Robyn's Introduction

Hi!  My name is Robyn Dilger.  I am thirty-seven and work at Owensboro Medical Health Systems.  I am going back to school to get my BS-Radiologic and Imaging Sciences CT/MRI.  I currently work in x-ray and MRI.  I have been working in OMHS for seven years and in MRI for 2 years.  I wanted to learn more about the modality of MRI because I love working in this area.  I hope to learn as much as I can with these classes and I hope it will help me with the boards later on.