Any rad-techs out there?

[Livinstrong85]

Hi everyone...since I have been thinking about Rad-tech, I was wondering if someone in the field could give me some advice. I initially wanted to do MRI or CT, and the hospital where I work (Jefferson in Philly), offers accelerated 1 year bachelor's programs in all modalities, if you already have a previous bachelor's and all the prerequisites (except for CT, for some reason...they only offer it to people with previous rad-tech experience...which seems weird, since that's the only one).

ANYWAY, after reading on the message boards @ indeed.com (really NEGATIVE site, btw), a few individuals stated that it would be a REALLY bad idea to get certified in MRI/CT/any other modality without having a general radiography certification first, as hospitals like to hire people with more than one modality, and radiography is considered the base off which to build all your skills.

SO, for any CT techs/MRI techs/NucMed techs/Rad Therapists/Sonographers out there, did you get your rad-tech cert FIRST, and then specialize, or did you specialize right away? Is this immediate specialization without radiography first a new phenomenon, and is it crazy to think one could get a job in CT/MRI/NUC-Med/PET, etc, without having your radiography cert first?

Any help at all would be appreciated. Jefferson also offers a 2 year multicompetency program, in which case I would prob pick radiography and CT/MRI/NucMed, if I decided to go that route. But I don't want to take a whole extra year if I don't have to.

Thanks in advance!

[damrcngrl95]

Here is a site that has a lot of info about Rad Techs. They even have a forum. It isn't as busy as this forum, but you could get many of your questions answered.

http://www.auntminnie.com/index.aspx?sec=def

[eagle78]

Here is an additional forum, http://www.radiologyforums.com/

[eagle78]

okay, here is the arrt position on certification:

education requirements for arrt certification

primary pathway

candidates pursuing primary pathway certification in radiography, nuclear medicine technology, radiation therapy, magnetic resonance imaging, or sonography must have-within the past five years-successfully completed an educational program that is accredited by a mechanism acceptable to the arrt*. beginning on january 1, 2015, all candidates for primary pathway certification must have earned an academic degree before becoming certified.

as part of their education, candidates must also demonstrate competency in didactic coursework and an arrt-specified list of clinical procedures by completing competency requirements established for the discipline in which they are seeking certification.

* arrt generally recognizes only accreditation agencies that are recognized by chea and/or usde. currently, that includes only regional and programmatic accrediting agencies listed here. the arrt board in july 2011 instituted a moratorium on recognizing new accreditation agencies while it is re-evaluating its recognition standards.

[eagle78]

here is the other part of it, for some reason not all of the paste posted.

post-primary pathway

candidates pursuing post-primary pathway certification in mammography, computed tomography (ct), magnetic resonance imaging (mri), quality management (qm), bone densitometry, cardiac-interventional (ci) radiography, vascular interventional (vi) radiography, sonography, vascular sonography, or breast sonography must hold primary pathway registration with the arrt (or in some cases, nmtcb or ardms) in an appropriate discipline and document completion of specific clinical experience requirements.

https://www.arrt.org/certification