On week four of clinical placement my work was split between nuclear imaging and Dexa scanning. DEXA stands for dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. It is used to check bone density. Generally, the denser your bones are the stronger they are, and the less likely they are to break.
My time in nuclear imaging was very interesting. For the majority of the time there was only one radiographer, however I feel this was beneficial to my learning as I was able to work extremely closely with her. This was great as she would spend the time to explaining examinations and pathologies in detail to me. The radiographer also reported most of the scans she performed and I would accompany her while she dictated the reports on the day’s scans. She would explain her findings and explain how she had arrived at her conclusions. There were a few scans the radiologist reported which I was able to sit in on while the radiographer and the radiologist reported these.
My time in nuclear imaging greatly increased my knowledge and understanding of the modality. Previously, I was under the misconception that, anyone receiving a radioactive isotope was receiving a really big dose of radiation. I now know this not to be the case. In fact, in the majority of cases the dose a patient receives is usually a lower dose than a normal x-ray. I am not sure why I previously thought that the radiation dose for nuclear imaging was really high; however, I think my misconception is shared by a lot of the general public. Educating the general public about nuclear imaging is maybe an area that the department should look into in order to correct these false assumptions.
On the whole the general public know very little about radiography and I feel all departments should try to educate and inform people about their role in the Allied Health Profession. There were a few occasions while in nuclear imaging when I had to reassure patients that the radiation dose they received was negligible. Further to this, on one occasion, I had to reassure a patient that had incorrectly jumped to the conclusion that they had metastatic bone cancer without any diagnostic evidence. The patient mistakenly presumed that nuclear imaging was used exclusively to find cancer and nothing else.
This lack of understanding or misinformation was also apparent when I worked within the Dexa scanning department. In general I found that the majority of people had never heard of DEXA scanning before and I found myself explaining to friends and family what happened within the department and the reasons we use DEXA scanning. My time in Dexa scanning was very short as I only had about 4 hours there in total. I found this discipline more interesting than I first thought. DEXA scans are used to help find out whether a patient has osteoporosis or possibly at risk of developing it. Most patients who had been referred were conversant with the department as most had a previous history of a fracture. Even with my limited time in this department I gained a lot of knowledge about osteoporosis and bone density.
The radiographer advised me who possibly referrers patients and the different reasons why patients were referred. It was explained how they calculated whether patients were at risk of osteoporosis. This is done by standard deviation, by cross-referencing the patients’ age against an average bone density chart. The graph has been created by scanning hundreds of patients at the age of 35 and recording their average bone density. There are three categories that bone density can be classified as; they are normal, osteopenia and osteoporosis. Osteopenia is the name of the category between normal and osteoporosis. By the end of my time in Dexa the radiographer was allowing me to take some of the patients’ details. I would register patients’ weight and height before positioning them on the table for their scans. In general there are two scans taken, one of the lower spine and one of the hip, two of the main areas at risk from osteoporotic fractures. These are then measured and compared with the osteoporosis risk chart. I found my experience in Dexa scanning very interesting and enjoyable and a very informative and rewarding experience.
Overall my week in Nuclear Medicine and Dexa Scanning has been really enjoyable. Even though both departments were short staffed I was able to have plenty of hands on experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 5:19 pm and is filed under Reflectives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.