Am I qualified for Radiology interview?

[findingmywayRN]

Hi,

I have read some posts on this thread to prepare for an upcoming radiology interview. My background is a few months med surg and a couple years LTC. It seems that the background required by some posters here is ICU/ER/PACU. This worries me - am I not qualified to interview for this position? Does it sound like they are just looking to fill a hole in their schedule rather than be concerned about my work experience? Also, how long of a training time is needed for new nurses in this area? Do you work alone or with others (are resources available)?

Thanks for your help.

[dianah, ASN]

Your questions need to be answered by the Manager with whom you will interview for the position. We always required ICU/ER/PACU experience because we helped with cardiac caths and trauma angios, as well as TIPS and other procedures on critically ill ICU pts. If our nurses didn't have ICU experience, how could they accept monitoring of an ICU pt for an angio or CT-guided biopsy? Perhaps some Radiology depts require the nurse taking care of the pt on the unit to accompany that pt down to Radiology and the Rad. RN would only be responsible for helping the Radiologist with the procedure, not for pt care and monitoring . . .

Again, you will have to check with your Rad. dept for new-hire requirements as well as orientation time and whether or not one works alone. Departments' nursing duties and responsibilities differ from facility to facility. Ask a LOT of questions! You will be interviewing them as well as vice versa!!

Re: resources: we always had each other to bounce things off of!! (poor sentence structure, but you get the idea!) Good to have different brains working together problem-solving and brain-storming.

Good luck.

[findingmywayRN]

Thanks for your reply Dianah. I will definitely ask the nurse manager about the points you've mentioned. I'm so glad I read the posts in this section before the interview!