Feb. 18, 2016
You can’t know what you don’t know until you’re shown. This is how I often explain my experience as an ASRT Foundation International Speakers Exchange Award recipient.
I was selected for the award and traveled to the 2014 United Kingdom Radiological Congress in Manchester, England. Having spent my entire career practicing in the United States, I was excited to experience the profession from a global perspective. I assumed that the way I practiced was how everyone practiced, and I was looking forward to sharing my knowledge with colleagues from around the world and learning from them.
My assumption wasn’t completely wrong, but it was far from completely right. I was astonished by some of the differences I discovered, from the educational preparation of R.T.s to their professional responsibilities as practicing technologists.
In the U.K., technologists, called radiographers, take diagnostic images like in the U.S., but they often report on them too. As students they are taught to diagnose a wide range of illnesses and diseases and as professionals receive ongoing training to maintain those image interpretation skills. Another difference is that they can refer patients to other care providers when further treatment is necessary.
The opportunity to attend this conference and learn more about the profession on an international level has made a large impact on my professional life. The ASRT Foundation and its donors helped me see how differently things are done around the world, while staying fundamentally the same.
Donors also made it possible for me to network with colleagues I otherwise never would have met. I made several connections with international counterparts who are interested in collaborating on future research projects, international publication opportunities and potentially some guest lecturing. All of these would help to grow the body of knowledge in the profession, both here and abroad.
One very memorable example of these connections helping to expand the body of knowledge was getting to sit down and talk with a close friend and colleague of Sir Godfrey Hounsfield. No textbook I have read has contained the information I learned from her about the “Father of Computed Tomography.” This knowledge is not something my peers or students would have learned in the U.S. I am blessed to have had this experience and to be able to pass that knowledge on to my students when I teach computed tomography.
Looking back on my experiences, I realize that I still have a lot to learn. The Foundation and everyone who supports Foundation programs showed me that the profession is not the same everywhere. I now know that I need to continue to further my global experiences in the radiologic sciences.
Because of this opportunity I see that I need to broaden my knowledge of the profession around the world not only for me, but also for my students. I need to be able to share that knowledge and those experiences with my peers and students to help the profession move forward.
It’s important that we all give back in some way to our profession. Whether it’s donating our time or financial support, it’s necessary that we support one another in order to create a bright future for everyone in the radiologic science profession. I am deeply grateful to the Foundation and its generous supporters for making this learning experience possible. Their support is making a difference.