Xray tech~ more $$$ than RN??? - Page 15

where are you located?

Arise!

Arise, Thread, from the dark shadows of forgotten and dead threads, for it is time for thread necromancy!

Rise up! To the tippy top!




I doubt the OP is still around. This thread is aged.

Pleae do not allow this one bad "apple" spoil your view on X-ray techs, by and large. These days, x-ray programs are a full 4 year BS program, much akin to the education required to obtain an RN degree. Most RTs recognize and appreciate RNs education and experience. However, please do not be insulted by the pay scale. We are all playing on the same field, in the same game, even on the same team - perhaps just on offense or defense. I do not procalim to have all the capabilites of a nurse, but I would expect that a professional nurse would recognize my value in the health care profession as well.

In my area, the market for any imaging professional is overly saturated - no jobs available in this field. Before you commit to additional education, ensure your area can support your chosen path!

perhaps the reason why the x-ray tech's roles and responsibilities are so enshrouded in mystery is due to the fact that we work alone in dark rooms lined with lead. so maybe its time for some input from someone who has at least seen the inside of an x-ray room.

first of all, for those of you who are wondering "what does an x-ray tech even do?" let me just start by saying that an x-ray beam is not as magical as you think it is. it isn't rocket science, but there is a lot of thought that goes into producing a decent, useful x-ray.

let me give you an idea, try isolating the odontoid of the c2 vertebra from all the surrounding bones on an image. now try doing that on your first try. thats one view on what could be anything from a 3 to 5 view series of just the c-spine. now do that on a patient who is lying in a stretcher and wearing a collar. when it's your turn to be x-rayed i bet you'll be glad you have a licensed professional dedicated to imaging to do it instead of a nurse or even a doctor zapping away at you all day.

ok first id like to say she seems like a smug butt. but the truth is rad techs have a lot more technical education than most nurses do and you should'nt be going to nursing school for 4 years it should be closer to 2. the simple truth is that nurses are an indespencible member to any hospital, but there education is limited to the range and scope of there field rad techs start iv's push drugs and can tell you how ionizing radiation effects ever type of cell in your body. including 6 books on physics alone. we are taught how electricity works on a atomized level and can even build you a generator from an armature and 4 magnets. where as you dont even have to have college algebra to go to nursing school. Rn's in my area make around 22 to 30 $ an hour depending on there experience and how long they been in the field where as a rad tech hired prn gets 30$ an hour. i have a friend who travels from city to city in a semi and does mri and ct had all his hotels paid for including food. then banked 118K last year. ( granted he worked his butt compeltely off and never slept). but i would never say choosing to be a nurse would bring economic hard ship on you its still a very well paid job nurses just really undrestimate what kind of technical education being a rad tech truely involves i promise you its a whole lot more than pushing a button.

WOW. I can hear the ignorance flowing through this post! LOL where to start. Probably with spelling, since obviously, us nurses, can do that. Secondly, the pay scale for nursing varies and does pay for xray techs. So to compare a traveler with a staff RN or xray tech is just plain dumb as it is like apples and oranges. Sure, all travelers make more money, but it depends on many factors. I just returned from a 5 month stint as an RN and would have made over 150k for the year. That and I didnt have to travel via semi..oh and my food and lodging were paid for! :O oh, wait, thats what being a traveler is....right. Oh and I only have to work three days a week like most RNs.

3RD, perhaps the last poster should do his research BEFORE he decides to have diarrhea of the mouth, every RN program I have known (and that is many since I am in education, and have researched RN programs all over the country) requires algebra!! OH and pathophysiology, anatomy x2, nutrition, biology, chemistry, math, psych, soc, nutrition, etc. (and OH and those are just the pre reqs!! That doesnt include the full 2 years (as all NURSES know and ADN is never truly 2 years!)

Oh, and the kicker! OUR scope of practice is limited?? LOL. ON a standard day, i MUST know exactly how the body works in relation to everything else in the world (esp in ICU), how every medication works with the body and with other drugs. OH, and thats the "basics". OUr scope of practice is 10 fold compared to an xray tech! I mean come on! OUr scope of practice includes full on pt care...aka don't let your pt die. SOrry, no tech Ive ever known has had a scope of practice that encompassed that. I have saved lives in the ICU for 5 years, my assessment skills have to be sharp as a tac! You have to know as much as the MDs with out the benefit of medical school. We run multiple drips to control every system a patient has. So, yes, you MUST know what you are doing..oh and the college algebra (that none of us had to take, and that most of us prob passed out of) comes in handy when you are managing 8 gtts to keep BP certain parameters and UO..oh but wait...had I taken that physics class, I would have that all figured out. OH wait, I did take physics and its useless in my sector of the field!

IM not putting down techs just correcting the ignorant rant of the last poster. Wow if you are going to post something, at LEAST know what you are talking about! To those thinking about this career, do your own research ! Call the schools that have this program and talk to an advisor. Make sure you research salary in YOUR area!. RNs have a huge pay gap from state to state. Oh, and my final point...with an RN there are so many avenues you can take and pay is variable depending on that facet of nursing you do, I know some RNs who make 500$ working for a law office, however, that's not a salary you can compare to bedside nurses. I know in my area, techs are lucky to make low 20$/hr with mid 20 cap. Nurses are generally started at 65-70k where I am. Oh and that number is a low ballpark, I know the other hospitals around here the pay is higher.

Come on now GrnHonu99, you know you wish you could MacGuyver together a generator from chewing gum and shoe laces - admit it! Our training as nurses is clearly inferior because when our patient crumps that's the first skill we wish they had taught us in nursing school.

Where are you getting your information on nursing education from? You are comparing apples to oranges. Nursing education isn't exclusively a "technical" education which is one of the reasons it takes so long. How, exactly, do you fancy yourself an expert on how long nursing education should be?

I may not know how to build a generator from an armature and 4 magnets but when my patient is coding, what skills do you think the person at the bedside needs to have?

My husband is a tech, he has done many areas of radiology and is now a manager for a very large imaging institute at one of the larger hospitals. He makes as much as I do and has had additional education for MRI and CT. The amount of A/P he needs to know is astounding...much more than we as nurses know. Our roles are very different, even though we have some similar roles. We both can put in IV's, we both can interpret labs (he has to know renal function inside and out due to contrasts), he has a lot of patient contact, he has to know about certain diagnosis so that he knows what to look for, he had knowlege of a lot things I don't...the amount of physics he knows blows my mind!. Do I think I am more than him....no way. We both respect what each other does.

As for the poster that was down on nurses...shame on you. Do the nurses in your department know what you think...