Video Transcript

Host:
Question: How do you become an X-Ray Tech, and were there and multiple educational or certification options available to you that you could have done?

Jennifer:
Answer: I wanted to go into the medical field. I kind of just took a stab at x-ray technician, went and shadowed someone and just really liked it. As the air has now changed the requirements for the education of it. But at the time when I went into school, there were certificate programs that were available and also to you could do an associate the certificate program and the associates program was actually right around the same amount of money. And because the associate program that I went to was through a community college, so so I just do associates because rather have a degree than the certificate and they’re about the same money. For me, I had already had a bachelor’s degree rolling into going to radiography school. So the prerequisites that were required for these issues degree I already had. I basically just had to take the anatomy and physiology courses before I could apply to get into the program. The program itself was two years and that was strictly just the X-ray program. Those two years didn’t include any other classes that were required for the associate degree, like math or science or anything like that. As I said, the mine actually counted from my bachelor’s degree, so I got really lucky in that sense.

Farrel:
Answer: I’ve had a few jobs before. Like a lot of women in their forties, I was a homebody with kids, but previously had worked in the dental field as a dental assistant for a cosmetic dentist for a long time. That was fun. And I had worked at our local hospital also in like NICU in labor and delivery, just doing unit clerk stuff, which was really cool. that’s where I got the exposure to what Radiologic Technologists do because ultrasound techs would come up to labor and delivery or Knick you. You’d have to take these adorable little babies down for imaging exams or they would come up and do like little chest X-rays on these poor little guys, you know? But it was one of those things where I was like, huh? I find that to be interesting. I’ve never had an interest in nursing at all, ever. In my lifetime, I would never. Not on my radar at all. Not in my wheelhouse. But that was interesting to me. So I worked there and then I went back to being a homebody and decided that I needed to do something because I, I like I said, I’m a nerd and I like I like to know stuff and have an education. And it was always bond. I never went to college, which is probably for the best, but to go later in life is a whole different deal. So I just went to our University here and checked into it and decided to do it. And it’s been like the best thing ever, you know?

Jenna:
Answer: So our school just got approved for a bachelor’s program, so that’s great. When I went though, we did not have a bachelor’s program, so it was a point based system in order to get in. So first I had my AA because that counted as a point. This is a very competitive field and you can only accept so many students per year, which is a small number, like 10 to 15 students. So some places might have more, might have less, but that’s kind of the average. So if there’s like 20 people trying to get in and that’s your pool, then going by that point, based system, whoever has the greatest number of points is going to get into the program. Will having the AA associate of ours counted as a point. So I first did my AA and I didn’t ask and radiography and I did an ASU scenography so that six years and then when I went for my bachelors that was eight years. I did that in health care management and now I’m working towards my master’s in education for health care. So I could have been a radiologist, right? So I would say to search around and if that is your ultimate goal is to get the bachelors, then I would search for a school that has that already set up. So you’re not kind of like chopping up your education into all these different avenues, which is great. I learned a lot, but had I had the opportunity to just do a bachelor’s right off the bat, that would have saved me a lot of extra time.