What it takes to become a Nuclear Medicine Technologist

Welcome to let's Chit Chat Wellness and Travel.

I'm Chandria Singleton and we're going to get right into our interview today.

We have the BCIT program educators and they have come to us, you guys from Canada.

So I'm so excited.

I'm going to give a soft introduction and I'm going to let each one of them tell us more about their sales.

First we have Hayley Olson Haley, for the last four years has been working as a nuclear medicine technologist and a PET scientist CT technologist in British Columbia, Canada.

Currently she is an instructor and clinical coordinator in the Nuclear Medicine Technology Program in bcit, which again is located in Canada.

And she's passionate about sharing the MRT or medical radiation technology profession with everyone and they are going to really dive deep into that topic today, you guys.

So stay tuned.

Next we have Christy Owen.

Christy is also a nuclear medicine technologist, but she is the program head and faculty director of the Nuclear Medicine Program of bcit.

She is a registered technologist in nuclear medicine.

She's also a proud Canadian association of Medical Radiation Technologists.

She holds that as well.

So we, we want to talk about these licenses and associations as well.

She's a member there.

She also has 13 years of clinical experiences specializing in pediatrics as well as adults, 15 years as an educator and leader.

She's one of the two program heads in the nuclear medicine program at BCIT and has also been elected to serve on the board of directors of other organizations.

So welcome Christy.

And Thomas Wong is our last guest coming from bcit.

He's the CO program head of their nuclear medicine program.

Prior to teaching, he has worked as a full time nuclear medicine technologist in the Canada area.

He's worked as a full time nuclear medicine technologist in a Canadian hospital there locally and served as the clinical supervisor for students.

Now during his breaks he wants to keep his skills up and we're going to talk about that too because that's what we do no matter what direction we go in.

He continues to provide casual relief for other technologists at his local hospital.

So welcome everyone.

Thank you for having us.

Thanks for having us.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

So I did that soft introduction.

Now you guys tell us who you are.

Tell us about yourselves and what it is that you do.

Well, you gave us such a nice introduction.

I can tell you.

You picked three very passionate people who have just cared greatly about their career and the field of nuclear Medicine.

So, yeah, thanks so much for having us.

I really appreciate the nice introduction.

Yeah, my story basically is history of pediatrics and now sharing the program head role with Thomas over here at British Columbia Institute of Technology.

So we're the only nuclear medicine program in B.C.

canada.

So that makes us a bit unique.

And yeah, we're actually alumni of the program, so we graduated directly from that program.

So that's pretty cool.

I was wondering though, if you wanted us to just give a brief overview of what nuclear medicine even is, because I know there's a lot of people out there who are like, what the heck is nuclear medicine?

So.

I know.

Yeah, go ahead, tell us because I want to know what you guys do as well.

You know, who are you, what it is that you do.

We know your nuclear medicine tech.

So yeah, tell us in, you know, in a nutshell because we'll, we'll dive more into it.

But tell us, what do nuclear medicine tech text you?

Yeah, you bet.

So nuclear medicine is basically the study of biological tracers that are attached to a bit of a radioactive component.

So a small amount of radioactive component is tagged onto a tracer and administered to a patient and the patient can have it via intravenous or orally or inhalation.

And we kind of follow that tracer and the body can process it naturally, you know, according to the, the patient's body function.

And so depending on what tracer we give, it will go to different organ systems.

And we can image that using either a spectator CT camera or a gamma camera and, or, sorry, a spec CT camera or a pet CT camera.

And we use those images to manage and treat disease.

So we're one of the types of diagnostic imaging, but we also do quite a few therapeutic procedures as well.

The cool thing about nuclear medicine is it's really also, it's able to detect very small changes on a cellular level.

So that's what, that's kind of what makes us unique.

And we also have like the ability to do quite a variety of scans.

We can basically scan any organ or body system in the body.

So it's pretty, pretty cool that way.

But I will pass it over to Thomas and Haley to add anything and introduce themselves further.

Yeah, thank you so much.

That was very lightful.

Christy kind of gave a nice little summary of what nuclear medicine is and you know, touching on, on kind of aspects of like what our role is in healthcare.

It's, we are part of the medical imaging family.

So it's, I sometimes joke.

We're kind of the lesser known cousin within the medical imaging departments.

But we're usually right there.

And a key component, as Kristy said, is in the doing procedures that help with the diagnosis of various pathologies.

And depending on the tracers that we use it, it can be used for things such as heart disease, bone conditions, even cancers.

There's a variety of procedures that, that we use with respect to the tracers.

In terms of kind of my experience, I primarily worked in a kind of a general nucleimescence department, so mostly adult based.

So I don't have as much kind of experience as as Christy has in the pediatric world.

So a lot of the procedures that we do are kind of the bread and butter nuclear medicine tests which include a lot of cardiac work and also kind of bone imaging and working with a variety of kind of adult patients.

So the audience kind of knows is that, you know, as we get older there are quite a few kind of elderly patients that do come in too.

But we, we see a variety of different patients in the setting that I've worked in.

So I'll just let everyone know.

I'm a more recent graduate, so I.

So I've been working in the few years I got lots of experience working at various sites.

So I actually picked up casually at four different places throughout the lower mainland here in bc, one of those sites was at the BC Cancer Agency which has a PET CT scanner.

I've gotten a lot of experience through those different work sites and seeing kind of the diversity that we have in, in nuclear medicine.

One of the exciting things with PET that I'll talk about is that there's a lot of research happening in our field.

So it's really exciting.

There's a field called theranostics which is basically combining this diagnostic imaging that we can do with a therapeut procedure so you can deliver really targeted treatment.

And I think it's really exciting that we have this kind of going on in our field.

It's something I'm super passionate about and oh my goodness.

So I'm learning some stuff here.

And Haley, I mean, I think you need a balance, especially as educators.

I love that you guys program has new graduates as well as grads who've been in the field for a number of years because it's more relatable to the students.

They're bringing in different ideas and different things.

So kudos to you guys for doing that.

Can you describe the role and responsibilities of a nuclear medicine technologists?

Maybe like day to day because we have students that follow me on social media, here on LinkedIn or new technologists maybe, or technologists like myself who are maybe looking to transition into nuclear medicine.

I was so excited about it.

And the first day of school, unfortunately my father had a massive heart attack.

I had to spend 30 days in ICU with him.

So I never really got back on track to take that chemistry and really kind of focus my brain back on nuclear medicine.

But the program chair was so amazing.

She just was like, you're always welcome to come back as long as this school is here.

And that just touched my heart.

And it really speaks to what the imaging modalities are all about and what imaging is all about.

We really support each other and we want people to know and other technologists to know the options that are out there for them.

So can you describe it kind of help people to see a picture whether they're a technologist or not.

What is it like being a nuclear.

Medicine tech department in terms of the day to day?

And this is actually something that I really like, love about the job is the variety of different roles and tasks that we do on a day to day basis.

I guess in terms of the start of the day because of the tracers that we use.

The one of the first things we do, the technologist comes in is to, to come in and prepare the radioactive tracers.

So there is the lab work component.

So this is where you get to kind of to apply some of those chemistry skills and get in there with the different types of solutions and stuff like that, doing some quality control on the tracers, making sure that they are labeled the way that need to be so that they go when we administer them to the patients that they are going to be useful for, for that purpose.

Once you get the tracers made up, the other aspect of the job would be ensuring that the equipment that we're using is suitable for imaging.

So our, as Christy mentioned, the camera that we use is a gamma camera or spec CT scanner.

The day to day task involves doing some quality control on the cameras, making sure that they, they are operational and that they're taking images the way that provide the clarity that's needed for, for the diagnosis of the, for the patient diagnoses.

Now that we have the tracers, the ready, now comes the patients.

Then the technologist has to switch over from that technical side to that people side.

And that's where the patient care aspect comes in.

This is where we need to bring in our patients, explain the procedures to the patients.

A lot of our tracers involve administration through injections.

All technologists are trained to perform IVs as well as puncture.

So we administer the tracers to the patients and schedule them in to come back for their images.

And that, that's kind of the.

The latter half is the imaging part.

So, you know, ensuring that the physicians have the images that they need to provide the diagnosis.

And in doing so, there's also some computer processing and displaying those images in a correct way for the physician to interpret.

I kind of took a little snapshot of a day.

Yeah, that was a good snapshot because as you were talking, I was thinking about my days in CAT scan and nuclear medicine was right next door.

When I first got out of radiology school and nukemed techs and CT techs, we worked really close together.

And it's like, who's going to put the IV in first?

Who does the patient first?

Med will call and say, do you need a 20 or a 22?

Do you need it in the AC or can I put it in the wrist?

You know, we just really had a close bond with the nukemed techs because we.

I worked in a cancer center when I first got outta school.

We would put each other's IVs in whoever had the patient first and leave the IV in and bring them right over to CT or nukemed.

A lot of these modalities crisscross and that's where Haley does the CTM pet as well.

But it's so interesting how all of our modalities are different, but we're very much alike and we, we work very closely together.

So thank you for giving, giving me that visual as I'm sure many others got that visual as well.

Anybody else have anything to chime in on that question?

I think Thomas did a fantastic job.

I was visualizing as you were going, Thomas.

I really was.

It brought back 20 years ago what I was doing with the nukemed text and CAT scan.

So that was great.

I do want to know this.

You talked about switching off from the technical side to the patient care side.

I remember the technologist having to put the isotropes or something into the patient and they would have to come to CAT scan.

They would drink first and then go to cat, go to nuclear medicine.

After they got the isotopes in, then they could go to lunch.

That was the highlight of those patients.

It was like they were like, I get to go to lunch and walk around And I'll be glowing when I go to the cafeteria.

They were so much fun.

But, you know, you get a relationship probably in nuclear medicine with your patients, right?

Because absolutely, yeah.

Could you talk a little bit about it?

You're not going to go into nuclear medicine, most likely as crank them in, crank them out, you get a relationship with people kind of like radiation therapy.

What do you guys say about that?

Definitely pipe in from a pediatric standpoint, because a lot of the imaging procedures that are done in pediatric nuclear medicine, the patients are coming back on a very regular basis.

You really get to know their families, you get to know the kids.

You really feel like you're connecting with them.

They come to the department and they're like, is Christy here?

I need Christy to do my iv because of course, last time it went well for Christy.

But, you know, hopefully, you know, it does that most of the time, but it's not a guarantee.

But when you have that kind of connection with patients and that patients that come and come back and repeat and come see you, you really, you kind of get a bond and it's sort of an action towards them and their family and feeling like you're really making a difference in lives.

So that's something that's been a very rewarding part of my career.

When I was, when I was working at Children's Hospital, was that just that follow through of just seeing that patient growing up, you know, over five, five, seven years, they would come back and you'd see them, you know, consistently so kind of part of the family.

They were bringing us cookies and, you know, that sort of thing.

I don't know, just, you know, and then the alternative is that, you know, the, the, the more difficult side and that's the, you know, the patients who, you know, their oncology patients, and those are the really tricky ones that, you know, their journeys aren't always as positive from a technologist perspective.

There's that emotional kind of struggle that happens when you do have a bond with some patients and you lose them or, or you hear that they've taken a turn towards the negative.

So that's definitely something that was, was a struggle for me personally when I was there.

More so when I, when I had my children.

Because of course then, you know, it became exceptionally real.

But it did have such a big impact knowing that even having them there, the kids had to be there anyways.

So if I was there and made their day, like just a little tiniest bit easier, then that was really rewarding for me.

I was like, that's enough.

I can, I can deal with my emotions, you know, just, if I can make them just have the, the day go a little easier, then I was happy.

Yeah, nothing like pee.

Yeah, sorry, I might have gone off on a tangent there, but no, I.

Was just going to jump into and add that some people might not know.

Some of the scans in nuclear medicine are quite long.

We have some scans that take up to two hours.

So you really do get that bond with your patient.

You really have a chance to build rapport.

I know it's quite different from CT scanning where it is kind of in and out.

You're with them for, you know, a couple minutes and then you never, yeah, you never see them again.

There's really quite a bit of time have those conversations and you really get to know someone.

And I think it's so specific because when I started in ct, I worked at a cancer center.

You see the same people over and over, either until they went into remission or unfortunately the disease took them over and been out of cancer.

But nuclear medicine, that's pretty much what are some of the things that people come in for when it comes to nuclear medicine.

Because it's not all cancer.

People think people only get X rays and they break a bone.

But I know nuclear medicine is not all cancer, right?

So just maybe like what are the top 10 things, you guys, that people come to be diagnosed through nuclear medicine or reasons they get that test?

So I, I think that naturally, I think some people think when, when they associate radiation, they go to the direction of, oh, it must be for cancer or cancer treatment or cancer imaging.

And, and don't get me wrong, that is a component, you know, a fairly big component of our tests, unfortunately, because it is a thing that we need to image for.

If you look at the varia of different traces that we have, I mentioned cardiac related procedures.

So we have traces that are designed to help diagnose coronary artery disease.

So looking for blockages in, in various vessels and we image the heart muscle to see if it's adequately perfused.

And we also have tests where we actually label patients blood cells and we inject them back in and we watch kind of where those go and see how, how well the heart actually pumps, pumps out that blood.

So we can kind of track and take a little movie, a little snapshot of, of what the heart looks like.

We also do a lot of bone imaging.

So we can look for bone fractures, we can look for various bone metabolic conditions as well as potentially some, some bone, you know, if patient has cancer.

We're also looking at whether or not the bone has.

Or the cancer has spread to the bones.

We do lung imaging looking for blood clots.

We have liver imaging where we look at how well the gallbladder works, whether or not there's any gallstones might be blocking and obstructing.

Let me ask you a question.

At what point?

Because this, I'm sorry, I'm kind of going off, but I like a conversation because this is what regular people do if you're looking for gallstones.

Because I go through ct, I do ctmr.

So your ct, we always get gallstones.

I mean people come in for abdominal pain and it's like, no, you're not dying.

You got a gallstone blocking the duct.

You know, so when would they go to nuclear medicine?

Because you could either see that on ultrasound, which is less expensive.

You could see it on ct, which is less expensive than a nuclear medicine tech.

So what would make a doctor say you need to go to nuclear medicine for a gallstone?

I would love to know that.

Yeah.

So you, you pinpointed because we, we often get patients that have had multi.

A multitude of those tests.

And, and it is often cases where maybe an ultrasound doesn't show, you know, with an ultrasound, I, I think it is, it does a really good job of detecting stones oftentimes so you can image the gallbladder, see if there's any stones present in, in the gallbladder or in the ducts.

And, and they'd be able to kind of identify that there are cases where maybe the stone is smaller and that, that that obstruction is, is still there, but it's not detectable down.

Similar with CT as well is that it can detect those stones with, with cases where a patient may have gone through some of those other tests, but they're still having some of the signs and symptoms that are pointing towards the possibility of, of having a gallstone that's obstructing the bile ducts.

That would be case where nuke medicine tests and it's called a HIDA scan where, where we would be performing that.

And the, the reason it works again, know, I'm getting really kind of nerdy and geeky now in terms of how it works is that the tracer we used, it does get metabolized by the liver and it simulates as if it's going in with bile.

So it would kind of follow the same pattern flow pattern as what bile would do going into the gallbladder.

Pretty much like what, what the patient's liver would normally function and we kind of see, see if the, the tracer is actually following that, that pathway the way it should be or if there's any sort of obstruction along the way and maybe it's, if it's not going to a certain area that, that'll be a case where we can kind of pinpoint and help the doctors figure out that there is an obstruction along that pathway.

So this is why, you guys, we are the third largest medical profession in the world and we are not just button pushers.

I mean, we are need to know what all goes into each of these modalities.

So I'm going to get back on track because we were talking about patient care.

But thank you, you guys.

This, that was really very helpful to other technologists because I think we all need to understand what each other does, you know, and it helps us to not depreciate what other modalities may do.

And it also helps us to appreciate what other modalities do because we need ultrasound, we need, you know, t.

You need.

Mr.

You need all of these modalities that come together with pet ct, nuclear medicine, radiation therapy.

And we come.

Mammography, we come together and we can help the patient and us really understanding.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So I really love that because now I understand.

I knew what a HIDA scan was, but I didn't know what a HIDA scan was.

So now I know.

Yeah, we're talking about patient care and what it takes in nuclear medicine.

Now can you guys discuss the challenges?

Oh, I'm sorry, let me go back.

What are some of the key skills and qualities that are important for success as a nuclear medicine tech?

And how do you stay current with the latest advancement in technology?

Because she, Haley was talking about a therapeutic, you know, so how do, how do you do that?

Yeah, so I think, I mean, some of the basic things are of course, having a bit of an aptitude for science and technology, wanting to work in that kind of field.

There are those kind of technical skills associated with our job that, you know, we do a pretty good job teaching, I like to think.

But something that can be a little harder to teach is that interpersonal, you know, relationship and those skills of working in a team, being compassionate, being kind.

You know, a lot of patients are really quite nervous about having radiation be put into their bodies.

So you really do have to have those skills to build rapport, build that trust to be able to, you know, get informed consent.

And so those are, can be a little bit harder to teach.

So I would say, yeah, key skills and Qualities that we look for are those personable, personable skills as well.

In terms of staying current in the field.

There's a lot that we try and, you know, instill in students.

And one of the key things that we do is having that curiosity and being a lifelong learner because technology's always changing.

So even just in the last few years that I've been working as a technologist, there have been new procedures that have come out, there's new research.

So being able to stay current, you know, I, I personally, I like attending conferences, I like volunteering with my professional associations that I can, you know, stay up to date on kind of the current trends and the best practices doing that.

You know, continuing education is super important, and I think it just makes you a better technologist.

And yeah, that's sort of how I do it.

I keep working in the field.

I hope I never give that up.

Even now that I'm on that educator side, I love, I love being in the clinic.

So.

Nice, nice.

I love that.

Anybody have anything else they would like to add to that?

Okay, so now we're going to go to the next one because I love this question.

Can you discuss some of the challenges and obstacles that nuclear medicine educators and professionals face, and how do you work to overcome those challenges to ensure that your patient receives the best possible care?

Maybe I'll start with maybe talking from the educator's side and Mel point it to someone else to kind of talk about the.

From a professional standpoint.

I think from an education standpoint, Hayley kind of touched on it is the, the fact that is, as an educator is how do we teach a field that is constantly growing and evolving and that scope of practice, you know, doesn't.

Doesn't kind of stay constant.

It kind of is changing on a, on a, you know, as we kind of get to new advancements, we're finding that every time, you know, our association, national association comes out with a new, what's called a national compsy profile, where it lists out what a entry level technologist needs to know in order to co work.

There are changes that are constantly being added and, you know, it does become challenging within a kind of a condensed program.

How do you, how do we kind of achieve that?

I think sometimes, again, this is just more of a personal standpoint.

I find that a default answer that you'll hear a lot of educators say is like, oh, the students now are different.

They learn differently.

I'm not sure I agree with that because I do think that the way people learn hasn't changed but I think the way that information is shared has changed.

Because we're in a digital world, information is more accessible.

So I think that the methods that we use to teach need to adapt to that.

In the past maybe there was more of a need to deliver that content because that would have been potentially the only means for a student to receive that information.

But now it's more of you know, pivoting to, to focusing on, on that skills and, and, and some of those, those, those other important developments that need to happen.

And I think, I think that's where we really kind of try to focus on that kind of hands on experiential aspect where, where students perform a task and we, we offer them that feedback and support along the way so they can help with their development.

Sorry to kind of dive into kind of education side but that was good.

Yeah, that was very good.

I guess I can probably make a couple comments towards actually like as a technologist and I think one of the interesting things about working in healthcare these days obviously as everyone's heard is it's, it's challenging and it's, it's the, it's a long game and it's, it's been you know, big marathon getting through Covid even before that, you know, especially in Canada and I'm sure the States as well, there's some resource issues right.

There's staffing issues and human resource problems.

And you know I think one of the really unique things about nuclear medicine is we're such a small community each department that you know within B.C.

like we, we tend to basically know everybody that's a nuclear medicine technologist and, and you know as you said there's a lot of interprofessional education and opportunities to Chandra.

So we have technologists that were nuclear medicine now are in MRI and NCT and you know an ultrasound and so you know we, we definitely have kind of like an outreach of, of, of our community but nuclear medicine itself is very small within Canada and you know we tend to be, we tend to be close knit and tight and we also, that means that we are like very supportive as a community towards each other and I think that's something that's really helpful to, to help keep us strong mentally and in a self care perspective.

Like our teams are built tightly.

I mean even within bcit our BCIT faculty team is tight.

Our, in whichever department I've ever worked in as a technologist that's tight and it's, it's really interesting because it does reach all the way to the US Too.

I mean, the physician that I used to work with at Children's, she work at Stanford and she's going to be the upcoming president for the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging.

You know, that the community is small and I think that, that, that, you know, just that connection to each other keeps us kind of mentally, mentally strong, you know, So I think that's helpful in this day and age in the healthcare system.

I love that because as you, as you said, Christy, you know, there's a shortage in staffing even in the state.

You know, I was just telling you guys a story.

I had an employee call in six, so I had to go out, you know, because there was a shortage.

You have, we have a shortage of contrast in the CT department.

Yeah, we did too.

Yep.

Yeah, we still have it.

We're still going to the major hospitals and borrowing contrast from them.

You know, fortunately we have that connection and that, I don't want to say brotherhood or sisterhood, but it's that radiology, you know, family that, yeah, we're, we're competitors in a way, but we're not when it comes to our patient care, when it comes to supporting technologists.

And I just love that over the years, in the 20 years I've done it, we've had contrast shortages throughout the time.

I've done it a couple of times, but I've never been without contrast anywhere.

I work, because you can call this hospital over here that's quote unquote, your competitor, and they're like, how much you need, how many syringes you need?

You know, what do you need in education?

You know, if they're, if you're a technologist trying to study for the boards, other MRI techs.

You know, I remember trying to study for MRI registry, and it was a hard registry.

It was one of the hardest because it, it's nothing like radiology.

It has, you know, it's not radiation.

But the support I got from my fellow MRI techs, you know, as a new technologist, was like you said, Chrissy, it's just, you know, it's what we, we are a small community in radiology and we all just come together to make those challenges and obstacles surmountable and really give the best possible patient care and also coworkers to our co workers as well.

So this is really, that's really good.

Now, what inspired each of you to pursue your career?

Nuclear medicine?

Because that's what technologists are going to know or students are going, going to want to know.

What inspired you to Go to nuclear medicine.

Who wants to start?

You go Thomas.

Go for it.

Sure.

Okay, I'll share share my story.

So it's interesting because with that question in terms of inspiring pursue a career in nuclear medicine, I, I'm probably like many many people didn't know what nuclear medicine was.

It was you know, going back to kind of of, you know, my days in high school.

I mean the, the big push wasn't to go to schools that offered these type of programs.

The, the big push was going to university.

And if you couldn't get into university, you take the college route to try to get into university to transfer in.

Like that was kind of the, the, the, the, you know, that was kind of what my high school counselors would would have kind of said.

And where, where I found myself was I was in probably a second year university not really knowing kind of what direction I wanted to go in in terms of pharmacy was my, my passion because I thought it was kind of a cool job.

I, I did some part time work, you know, working as a kind of in the retail pharmacies and I didn't really enjoy it and also found that I wasn't that passionate about chemistry and I knew that pharmacy would probably involve a lot more chemistry and, and I was like, I don't know, I don't know if I can really say that I was that passionate about that.

And that's when I started kind of looking and browsing through different Back then it wasn't, there wasn't a website, it was a catalog.

So I'm dating myself a little bit, flipping through catalogs and, and looking for, for options.

And you know, by the time I already finished my degree and, and still kind of looking and BCIT kind of caught my eye in terms of what nuclear medicine was and I started looking into it.

I'm like well this seems kind of interesting the, the lab work.

I, I, I had a passion for science because that was what, what my degree was in.

And I kind of applied to a program not really knowing too much about it and it turned out to be one of the best decisions that I could have made because it brought me into a career that I did not wasn't even aware of.

And, and yeah, that, that's kind of my story.

So I kind of stumbled.

That was a good stumble.

That was a very good stumble because I know the students are happy to have you.

What Christy or Haley?

How did, how did you get into nuclear medicine?

Yeah, I can share my story.

It's sort of similar.

So I kind of Got pushed to that undergraduate degree route and I had a Bachelor of Science.

And I just.

There weren't a lot of job opportunities that I could kind of walk into with that.

And so I was actually working at the BC Cancer Agency in like a clerical position.

And so I would come across patient charts and requisitions and I would see these reports that at the top they said nuclear medicine report.

And I went, what the heck is that?

I had heard of X ray, I had heard of ultrasound and ct, and I had no idea what nuclear medicine was.

So I started doing some research and Googling it.

At this point, there was a website, Thomas.

So I found the BCIT website and I just thought this sounded so cool that we could image function instead of just structure.

I thought that was super cool.

So I ended up applying.

And like Thomas, like, it was just one of the best decisions I ever made.

I find it so rewarding being able to have this positive impact on people that are going through something kind of scary and stressful.

Like, no one's ever really that happy to be at the hospital.

They're there because something is going on with their bodies.

They need answers.

They don't maybe aren't sure what's going on, or they've had a really difficult diagnosis and now they're managing their treatment.

And so kind of like what Kristi said, too.

If I can make that, that experience even just a little bit better, make them smile or, you know, make them feel comfortable and safe, that to me is just.

It's so rewarding.

It feels so good.

Oh, that's nice.

I love these expressions.

What about you, Kristi?

Well, I think it's funny because, you know there's going to be some parallels with, with everyone who gets into nuclear medicine just because it's so not very well known.

So everyone kind of stumbles upon it somehow.

But I will say I'll just take it to like the next level.

So I had a similar saying where I was, you know, in science, biology, and I was like, what am I going to do with this?

Like, I'm not going to do research.

I don't want to do research.

And I didn't.

I didn't want to go the nursing route.

You know, I love patients, I love the patient care, and I give nurses all the credit in the world, but I just.

The lifestyle of the.

The 12 hour shifts and everything, it just wasn't something that I really wanted to pursue, you know, and.

And I just remember in high school, it's so funny.

I'll just.

I'LL swing back to my purpose in a minute.

But, you know, in high school I was like, peer tutoring, you know, students that are younger than me.

And I remember saying to like, my, my science 12 or biology 12 teacher, like, I really would love to be a teacher, but I don't want to, like, you know, high school students, they don't really want to be there.

I remember saying to him, like, I would love to teach students who really want to learn what they're learning, like, who are passionate about what they're learning.

And it's funny because I, you know, I stumbled upon the nuclear medicine program.

I went through it and I remember being like, towards the end of it and saying to one of my, you know, instructors and mentors, you know, at the time, I really hope one day I can work with you.

I would love to, you know, reach students this way and teach them and, you know, and share my passion of nuclear medicine, you know, when I get more experience and skills and all that kind of stuff.

And anyways, it turns out a couple years later, you know, they had a.

They had a position that needed to be filled on a casual basis.

They called me back to BCIT and I was doing some, you know, some lab organization and, you know, some lab work with the students and, and kind of got my foot in the door.

And I really found.

So I love my pediatric career for sure, but I really found kind of my passion aligned with my previous love of like, teaching and the nuclear medicine skills at BCIT is like, really what.

Where I'm sort of happy.

I love it.

These are nice expressions and they're very genuine as well.

So no more catalog.

They've got a website now, so.

Yeah, I had the newspaper, so they had a website.

Just so lame.

So lame.

All the information was.

More information in the catalog.

Catalog.

Thomas, I'm there with you with the catalog.

I still.

I got an ARP catalog the other day.

I'm going to clip that out, but I, I just had to say that.

Okay, so let me ask you guys.

What advice would you give younger radiology students or high school students that are looking to maybe go into the medical field?

Each of you?

Maybe like in a, a minute or so.

What, what advice would you give them?

Yeah, so I think, I mean, I would say do a lot of research into what your options are.

Right?

There's more than just being a nurse or being a doctor.

If you want to go into the medical field.

There's tons of different professions, so do some research.

Figure out what you think is going to be interesting.

And then I would recommend going to a local, you know, clinic or hospital, see if you can shadow for a day.

That's going to give you a really good idea about, you know, if you can see yourself in that profession.

And it'll give you, you know, kind of a better idea of what you'd be getting yourself into for a career.

So that's something that I did and that's something that would definitely recommend to anyone who's looking at going into one of these fields.

Yeah, and I would agree with you, Haley.

I did the same thing.

I went to a department and I spent the day there.

And I remember, and this might be something you want to do too.

I remember asking the, the, the technologists that were working there, hey, what, what do you like about your job?

Like, how long have you been working here?

You know, what would you say is the most, you know, difficult thing about your job?

And I just remember thinking it's so weird how much people like their jobs here.

But that's so cool.

Like, maybe that's a great, great.

Maybe that means it's a great career and it's a fulfilling career.

So I think, you know, trying to match something with your, with your lifestyle and with your, with your passion is, is, you know, if you're passionate about, you know, having an effect on patient outcome and you want to do the patient care thing, but, you know, maybe you, you want to have the technical side.

I think you, you could look into medical imaging and it's not just nuclear medicine.

Right.

There's a lot of different branches of medical imaging and, and ways that you can kind of, you can, can do many, you can be cross trained in many.

And that's, and that's, there's lots of job opportunities there.

So I think it's just kind of finding where your passions align with kind of what lifestyle you want to be in.

That's good advice.

Great advice, Thomas.

Yeah, and I agree with everything that Hayley and Christy said.

It's really, I think a lot of people, when they, when they kind of think of a medical field or thinking of healthcare careers in general, I think, I think oftentimes I hope that one of the goals is that they want to work with people, they want to help people, and, and I think it's just being willing to explore that there are other career options that are in addition to doctors and nurses.

And it's really just finding kind of something that fits that interest and those skills and don't be afraid to even maybe look out for opportunities that may volunteer in a hospital or a clinic.

Because I think I always sometimes tell younger people I come across.

I'm like, if you can get into a hospital to volunteer and you're like wayfinder kind of showing people around, you also get to see and explore all the different types of professions and seeing how they interact with each other.

And that could be something that really is a good starting point to kind of, you know, look for, look for some of those opportunities and find programs on the websites to seek how to get into those jobs.

Yeah, these are really nice because I personally have learned a lot about nuclear medicine technology.

Thank you guys very much.

But I found it very interesting BCIT is the only nuclear medicine program there.

So tell us about your school, about your program, the curriculum, what people can expect from the curriculum and how they can learn more about even if they're in the Canada area, you know, just how you can be a resource to them.

Yeah, so yeah, we're, we're the only nuclear medicine training program in British Columbia, so in our province.

And there are a total of five programs in all of Canada.

So we are, we are a very kind of small, kind of specialized kind of field in that sense.

At bcit, we really pride ourselves on kind of hands on, industry focused type learning.

So you know, with, with, with our program, we're, we have a very unique blend of kind of theory based courses and that's kind of makes up the didactic component and then we also have a big component of clinical.

So the, the, the way that we integrate the clinical piece into our program is that we have students come to campus, they, they learn theory and they, they practice some skills.

They get to do some of those skills in a lab setting and then they go out to clinical and that's where they kind of really refine it and develop those skills in a real world and to kind of achieve that comp C level that they need.

So it really is a good blend of the two because the, you know, the, the one goal after you finish any program like this would be to find a job.

And that's something that we really want to kind of equip our students with is that kind of job readiness.

So once they graduate that they're, they're ready to kind of get hired on and start working at the hospitals.

Yeah, I'm not sure if.

Christy, do you want to add anything to that or.

Haley?

Yeah, I mean I'll just.

For sure I can add a couple things.

Just that, you know, when, when I was going through the program myself I loved that we were kind of set out to clinical fairly early on, within the first year to kind of apply some of the things that we learned and it was really like an integrative approach where it built on, built on the skills and built on the, the knowledge that we were, we were getting and we were able to go to lots of different sites.

So we, you know, we saw, you know, a pet clinic, we saw children's, we saw a few adult sites.

Now our students are going to spend some time in a dedicated CT department as well.

So they do get a great variety and I love that about our program and, and it's like not to shamelessly plug, but we just actually got a brand new, crazy beautiful building called the Health Science Centre and it's in that, it's on campus at bcit.

It's the Canada's largest simulation health center.

It's got a brand new spec CT, probably nicer than nine out of the 10 local hospitals, which is embarrassing to say.

But you know, we, we are so lucky right now with the, the studying that we're teaching our students in.

And it's really, it's really exciting for them too.

This is kind of the first, the first year we've been in, so we just moved in in June, so it's pretty, it's pretty cool.

So yeah, so that's, that's kind of, that's kind of the lay of the land in our program.

It's a two year program so they get about 40 weeks of clinical and it's pretty intense as far as that goes.

And they come out with a diploma and then they take the certification exam.

So the certification exam I think you mentioned in my bio.

So we are all across Canada we have a national association called the Canadian association of Medical Radiation Technologists.

And that doesn't just include nuclear medicine, that includes mri, that includes X ray technologists, it includes radiation therapists as well.

And so once our students graduate from the BCIT program, they're then eligible to write the national certification exam.

So once they pass that, then they can, you know, work anywhere across Canada.

So it would be equivalent to, I don't know if you've heard of the NMTCB in the States.

There's a, there's a few other associations.

Art.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So what is pretty cool, once our students kind of write the exam, pass the exam, we have a really fairly good pass rate as well.

They, they're eligible to work across Canada.

Of course we're always trying to keep them in B.C.

because we're so short right now.

And so we have like a hundred percent hiring rate right now upon graduation, which has been really kind of a, an attractive feature for, for candidates looking for, looking for immediate work.

You know, it's two years, two grueling years.

But then, you know, you have a job that pays a pretty good, decent wage as well.

Well, that says a lot about your program that you have that many lawyers hiring through your school.

So that says a lot of the type of quality students that you put out at bcit.

So that's amazing.

You guys, I have enjoyed this conversation and that's what I call it because it's been a conversation between radiologic technologists, imaging professionals, and that's what we need to have more of because we need to educate each other, support one another and just get the word out there about the third largest medical profession in the world.

And you guys are my first guests from Canada.

So I was from outside of the United States.

So I'm so excited to have you all.

We're so, so honored.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for having us.

Yes.

This is so fun.

I will over thank you and apologize.

This has been a great conversation.

And you guys, thank you so much again for being on let's Chit chat.

One is in travel with me, your host, Chandria Singleton.