Welcome to a new episode of "A Couple of Rad Techs Podcast" with your host, Chaundria Singleton.

Travel Radiology Jobs: The Real Benefits and Challenges of Being a Travel Technologist

In today's episode, Chaundria dives into her personal experience and explores the reasons why she decided to become a travel radiologic technologist. She discusses the various motivations that drive individuals to pursue this unique career path, including the allure of flexible schedules, financial incentives, and the excitement of constantly changing scenery. Drawing from her 21 years of experience in the field, Chaundria shares her own journey of overcoming challenges and seizing opportunities. Join us as we uncover the captivating stories and insights of being a travel tech.

travel radiologic technologist, personal experience, money, schedule, flexibility, change of scenery, assignment, locations, field of RadiologyTechs technology, 21 years, school, dedication, work, adventure, modalities in radiology, requirements, protocols, shortage, technologist, experience, teaching hospital, travel technologist, GE, Siemens, CT machines, diagnostic x-ray, experience, cross sectional anatomy, independent, experience, strategy, PRN jobs, full time job, outpatient, cancer center, IV skills, thinking cap, critical thinking skills, fearless, agency, hospital, value.

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1 Electric

Hello everyone, I am Chandria Singleton and I am your host of a couple of rad techs podcasts.

Today's episode is going to be talking specifically about why I decided to become a travel radiologic technologist.

Now you may say, why wouldn't you become a travel radiologist?

I do know what I do, but radiologic technologist.

But the reason I am going to tell you my personal experience is because each person's experience is different.

Some people get into it strictly for the money, strictly for the schedule, the flexibility and the just the change of scenery.

Some people do not like to be in the same place on a regular basis.

So when you get to be a travel technologist in the field of health, you're able to take an assignment for four weeks, an assignment for eight weeks, an assignment for 13 weeks, 26 or indefinitely to different locations.

But I'm going to specifically talk about my reasons and maybe they might help you to decide why it may be good or may not be good for you to become a travel technologist.

So first of all, I have been in the field of radiologic technology for 21 years.

Yes, 21 years and one month.

Wow.

@ the time of this recording.

But it has been a really good ride.

It was hard going through school.

It was a lot of work, a lot of dedication.

Some times where I thought I just was not going to make it.

But it turned out to be a really, really worthwhile adventure to go into radiologic technology.

I was able to then while I was in school, if you haven't heard my story before of how I actually got into the other modalities in radiology, I'm going to do a video on that to really go in depth of how easy it is at least 20 years ago, but it's just as easy now.

So it's just different requirements now than it was then in different protocols.

But it's still the same, it's opportunity out there for you to be able to do that.

So when I was in school I heard all of these amazing stories from technologists and worked with many radiologic technologists who came through as technologists working at the teaching hospital that I was working at.

And they were travel technologists.

And I was like, wow, tell me.

I mean, they had such fascinating experiences and the money was the bone and the money was so good.

Oh my goodness.

And I was like, I need that kind of money.

I really, really need that type of money on a, a 13 week basis.

Like you can make really, really good money in a short period of time.

Why wouldn't I be interested in doing that?

But one thing was you had to have at least a year or two experience before any company, travel company would hire you.

And at that time when I was in school, it was such a shortage in technologists.

They needed them so bad.

Oh my goodness.

It was like perfect timing.

But I just was, it wasn't my timing.

And I was like, this is not going to last when I get out of school and get my experience.

Well, it did not.

When I got out of school they kind of caught up on all of the staffing shortage and just I couldn't travel.

I mean, I didn't have enough experience number one.

And I came out of school not doing X ray but doing CT or CAT scan.

So in school I learned CAT scan and then when I got out of school I became a CAT scan technologist.

I did not do diagnostic X ray so I needed to get experience in that as well.

What I had learned for two years was not what I was doing.

So that was even more time that I would need.

The machines were different.

It was cross sectional anatomy now, which is so different from X ray.

But I could work pretty independent.

But I wasn't, I was in no position to be working as a travel tech.

I will say that you do want to get the experience, not as a travel tech.

I would tell you that.

So I became a travel tech within my, probably the first year, I would say year.

And I'm going to tell you this is the reason why I think you should wait at least a year or two.

Because I trained on ge, Siemens, excuse me, GE CT machines.

That's the only machine I knew how to scan CTs on.

Now I could do basic things, but a lot of advanced things I really didn't know how to do.

I took another job.

I had several jobs like PRN jobs at a full time job when I first got out of school and several.

And I worked at different type of facilities.

So that was my strategy in that was I worked at a teaching hospital which kind of saw everything on second shift.

And then I worked at a day shift where I would work kind of outpatient it was, but it was more of like cancer center.

And I saw that.

So I really got my IV skills really, really, really good.

Because second shift was mostly inpatients that came down.

So they already had their IVs.

Every now and then you would have to put in an iv but you really didn't get that much practice in the hospital setting of putting in IVs.

So that really was not where I got my IV skills.

Where I got my IV skills was working an outpatient in the cancer center on day shift, because outpatients don't come in with IVs.

That part of the story is so important to becoming a travel tech.

And then I got some outpatient experience at a few other jobs that I would pick up here and there, which gave me kind of a different pace and more of an independence than what I had at the hospital.

You always had kind of somebody to fall back on in the hospitals, but kind of working those outpatient places, you were by yourself on the worst shifts, weekends, nobody there.

So you kind of.

You had to put on your thinking cap.

You had to use your critical thinking skills.

And, yeah, that's what whipped me in a shape, I feel.

But I still wasn't ready.

But my little fearless self decided.

Someone called me and said, hey, back then, you had a lot of people that had their own agencies, especially locally, and the radiology world is really small.

So I actually got a call from a gentleman.

He had heard about me from someone else, that I was looking to always pick up shifts.

And I was always open and flexible.

I'm a hustler, you guys.

I'm definitely gonna be out there working.

And I was like, yeah.

Well, this new hospital opened up.

Now it's a huge, huge hospital.

Now it's been bought up by one of the biggest hospitals in this area.

But at the time, it was just, you know, this little hospital, kind of teeny, brand new.

And, yeah, he couldn't get anybody to work there, so he was like, would you do it?

And I was like, sure.

I look back now, and, yeah, it wasn't for the money because I shorted myself on that job.

But I didn't know any better.

That is why I am big on talking about radiology and really knowing your value and helping people to understand their value when it comes to doing radiologic sciences and technology.

Because a lot of times we short ourselves even starting out, and we don't have to.

You went to school, you know what you're doing, and that salary should climb and people should pay you what you're worth.

So I did not take my own advice because I didn't know any better.

But I remember my first third shift at this place.

He told me it was ge.

It was not ge.

It was Siemens.

At this time, Siemens was just coming out.

Nobody knew about Siemens machines.

So I didn't even have.

I couldn't even phone a friend.

I could not even phone a friend to ask a Friend, you know, hey, how do I do this on this machine?

How do I.

It didn't have a manual, nothing.

At least nobody showed me where it was at because the hospital was brand new and it was third shift.

None of the management, nobody was there, literally thrown into the fire.

I think I got the call like the night before, signed the paperwork and I went get there and I'm like, what?

How do I even turn this machine on?

And we didn't have Google and all this stuff back then.

So I am trying to figure out.

I think it took me about, about an hour to turn this machine on.

I am not joking.

It took about an hour to turn the machine on, the CT machine on.

Once I got it on, I knew how to scan.

That wasn't a problem.

So I had all these ER patients waiting on me because I couldn't figure out how to turn the scanner on.

And I had no one I could call a third shift who even knew how to work on the machine to do it.

And there was a guy there who did nukemyt, but he did CT as well.

But literally he was in a room sleep and he was never any help.

I mean, like I worked with him at another job somewhere else.

Just awful, awful person to work with.

Just I felt bad for the patients that he did stuff on like, anyway, I digress, but I just, oh my goodness.

At that point I realized I was in over my head.

And I figured it out though.

Came back the second night.

Second night was a little better, third night a little better.

And that fourth night there was another tech there in X ray and they didn't know ct.

So what I did was I helped them learn ct.

I would let them scan the heads and show them how to do heads if they helped me like transport it.

Because there still were some things on the scanner I had to figure out.

You know, it's not so much the aspect of doing the CT scans, but when you're traveling, you know how to scan.

That's not the problem.

Your technical skills usually are fine.

It's the paperwork, the processes.

And a scanner.

If you've never worked on that scanner before, and I'm gonna tell you, some of these places don't have the spanking brand new stuff.

If you think you're gonna walk into a travel assignment and it's everything, auto bolus tracking and the machine talks to the patient while you're doing the injection and you just have to sit back and set up things and it does, you are going to be sadly mistaken.

Almost every contract Job I have ever, ever been on is older machines, older equipment.

You don't have all the cushions and the paddings.

I remember one place I went to like there was a head coil for MRI and a.

What kind of scanner was that?

I don't even remember the scanner but it might have been a Seamus, but I really don't remember.

It might have been an Oge in the trailer.

And it's so many on my list of stories I could tell you about contract jobs I've done and if you work, used to working on stuff in your school, when you went through school or when you worked at a nice fancy hospital that had a wrist coil, they had a hand coil, they had a knee coil, that's what I think we had a knee coil and it doubled as.

You had to use the head coil as the foot coil and knee coil for everything else.

And no pads, you just use washcloths and towels and sheets as your padding.

So when I tell you you have to use your critical thinking, they pay you well and a lot of times those travel jobs like that pay really well.

So if it's paying you that good, you probably won't work for every penny and have to use your critical thinking.

If you don't have any critical thinking skills or ability to phone a friend, you're going to be up a creek without a paddle.

So if you are looking to travel simply for the money, just know you need to have experience because it could be a really bad experience for you and you don't want to get a bad reputation or get a bad experience because travel can be a really, really good thing.

And it might have been the best decision.

No, I'm going to say it was the best decision I ever made because I have only had to take, I think two full time jobs when the economy kind of went down.

There weren't a lot of travel jobs, contract jobs out there.

So I always kept a prn, but this is actually my first time not having a PRN job, solely relying on my contracts.

And I credit that to jumping out there at a time when everyone told me I was crazy.

Thank you.

There's not enough consistency in travel.

Yeah, you make the money, but then what if the money's at.

It's called budgeting your money and not overspending.

And that's one thing I Would say throughout the years that I've been a contractor, I don't spend like that just because you make the money now does.

But I've been a business owner for a long time and money comes in at once and then you have like a little dry spell.

So.

So the same if you become a Travel Radiologic Technologist, CT Technologist, whatever it is that you're doing in a travel industry, don't just blow through your money.

The money comes fast and it goes just as fast.

You still got to pay taxes.

And if you work in another state, you got to pay taxes in that state too.

So I'm no tax advisor, but I'm just telling you I've worked in other states several times and you got to pay taxes in other states, so.

And the state you live in.

So I just say, you know, really use your travel assignment the wise way.

Nothing wrong with saying you got into it for the money.

I don't feel guilty about saying that at all.

Not at all.

Why else would I get into it?

There would be no other reason for me that I got into it.

I mean, I see no benefit of being a travel tech for me, my situation just to say, I mean, I travel a lot, so I don't need the change of scenery, I don't need the flexibility because I was PRN for so long.

So I, you know, but I, I need the money because I got bills.

So.

And I am of the mindset, work smarter, not harder.

And I understand that if I can make what I can make in 13 weeks or eight weeks, why in the world would I go to work every day and work indefinitely for the same amount or for a year?

And I can make that in 12, 13 weeks.

My brain just says travel makes sense financially or contract work makes sense financially.

So let me know you guys, what you think about this.

It's been a great, great conversation.

I'm going to come back with more reasons why I chose this to do in radiology.

And you guys let me know in the comments if you like this type of episode and, and what you would like to hear more from me about the field of radiology.

Until then, see you next time.

Be sure to leave a review if you could.

I really appreciate it.

It helps me out a lot.

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