Worry Be Gone

Some of my fellow students have encourage me to not be so hung up on getting my comps. But I feel it's important for me to be on top of it. We're only expected to get four comps Fall quarter.

One tech, I call her Wendy, Said, “I hope you don't feel like I'm pushing you.” Then she shoved me into a room and insisted that I grab a portable chest requisition and do the bugger myself. I did OK I guess. I pushed the cassette a little low and she corrected it. Then I set technique and that was a little hot. But at school our instructor is fond of quoting, “Better hot than not.” Seriously, she corrected my technique stab. My collimation and tube placement was good.

It's important to have initiative in clinical. I'm feeling very good about many aspects of my clinical experience. I'm very new with the hospital experience so I feel like a bit of sponge; trying my hand at various exams when it's appropriate; when not, I stand back and watch attentively. I try to remain on my feet at all time except to do paper work. When a tech seems to need help I step up. In short, I'm loving the experience as a whole. I try to ask periodically, "Is there something you need help with."

The area that I'm unsure about is comps. We need a minimum of four to get a satisfactory rating for Fall quarter. So far I have a double comp on CXR and a single comp on a wrist. I feel that I'm about to really pull in a bunch of comps now that we're cleared to do upper extremities. I want to be careful of mistaking being comfortable with an exam and being complacent. It can be a trap to say, I'm a beginner I'll sit out comping this one. That's easy to do for a beginner student in trauma because of how fast paced it can be there. I can be extremely reserved in new situations.

At the same time, Josh and Wendy, staff technologists have been taking upon themselves to push me saying, "Have you done a humerus before?" for example. And then allowing me to make my best effort at a trauma series. I love working with trauma techs because it does feel like an accelerated learning experience.