Importance of Radiological Technology

When you hear the word radiology, what comes to mind? Do you think of the overbearing effects that radiation can have on the body or perhaps the remarkable usage that comes from it's technology? Most people don't realize how extremely helpful radiation can be, but seldom it can be dreadful. The medical field would not be as productive without the use of radiological technologies.

When I say dreadful I mean the damaging consequences on the body that can come from radiation. Technicians who work around radiological equipment, such as -x-ray, CT or even mammograms, usually aren't too exposed to radiation because even though its every day, it's only for a short period of time. Repeated radiation exposure, like from people who work at nuclear power plants, could possibly get cancer because of the amount their body comes into contact with. When you see a cancer patient, generally they're losing their hair and very sick all the time. This is mostly because of their lack of white blood cells, but the radiation treatments from chemotherapy are very harmful to the body. Doctor's have to use radiation to shrink and stop cancer from spreading to other parts of the body, so that's what makes the cancer patient so weak (Nilsen). Some of the effects are nausea, vomiting, headaches, severe loss of white blood cells, fatigue and losing your hair ("Education Foundation").

While job shadowing at ETMC Orthopedic Institute I learned about the proper precautions that the technicians take so that they, nor the patient, get too much radiation exposure. One of the first steps toward achieving that purpose is wearing a lead apron. When the patient is in the x-ray room, they must wear a lead apron to keep from getting over exposed to the hazardous rad...

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