If you are about to graduate from your MRI tech school, you may be interested to know what you need to do after. You may think that once you pass all your subjects and graduate, you will automatically be an MRI technologist. Unfortunately, there are still a couple of things you need to do before that becomes official. The first thing to do is to get your certification from the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT). While this is not a must, it is highly recommended because it has become the gold standard to be an MRI tech professional.
Once you’ve received your certificate, you can now decide what type of environment you want to work in. In other words, do you want to work at the hospital, doctor’s office, diagnostic imaging center, or other clinics? That is the great thing about working as an MRI technologist: you have different options to choose from. So, all that’s left to do is apply and get hired.
Role of an MRI Tech School Graduate
Now that you know what you need to do, let’s examine the responsibilities that the job entails.
As an MRI tech school graduate, you already know that your primary responsibility is to operate the MRI machine and to ensure that you get accurate scans of the patient. The training you received should have made you well-versed in human anatomy, pathology, and physiology in order to assist physicians in diagnosing the patient. This is critical because you should be able to determine which part of the body you will need to scan according to the medical history and what the physician orders.
If you are doing your program at an MRI tech school, then this will most likely include doing 1,000-2,000 supervised clinical hours. This is great for you because it will give you hands-on experience on the machine and software. Operating the MRI is more than just positioning the patient correctly, you will also need to know how to select certain software options and imaging parameters to adjust the machine. It all depends on which part of the body you really need to examine. Furthermore, it is your job to interpret and summarize the results for the physician.
You may think that MRI technologist’s employment is just about sitting in a chair all day as they wheel in the patient. But actually, it will be your responsibility to talk to the patient and answer any questions or concerns they may have. This will allow you to develop your interpersonal skills as you deal with different patients each day.
Unlike most health professionals, an MRI tech also gets to work with many departments from the medical field, especially if you choose to work at a big hospital. You will assist physicians with various specialties in getting a proper diagnosis of the patient’s condition.
Taking all that into consideration, it really is crucial to your future to pick an accredited MRI tech school that will properly prepare you for the job.
