Are you a radiologic technologist or radiation therapist feeling more “tired” than usual? Ever question if there’s more to your career than the daily grind? In this episode, Sean gets real about burnout in the medical imaging and radiation therapy community. He unpacks why burnout goes deeper than physical exhaustion, how the ASRT (American Society of Radiologic Technologists) helped him rediscover purpose and connection, and shares tangible steps you can take to protect your peace and grow in your career.

• Beyond Exhaustion:
• Burnout isn’t just about long hours or heavy workloads (although those don’t help). Sean discusses how feeling stuck and lacking growth opportunities hits medical imaging professionals hard, often leading to disengagement and questioning one’s path.
• Personal Breaking Points:
• Sean shares candid stories about his own burnout moments, including struggles with certification and feeling unseen in the workplace. If you’ve ever sat in your car after a shift, wondering if anyone notices your effort, this conversation will resonate.
• How the ASRT Makes a Difference:
• Discover how connecting with others through the ASRT changed the trajectory of Sean’s career and mindset. From volunteer opportunities and mentorship to leadership development and advocacy, the ASRT provides valuable resources for technologists at every stage.
• Actionable Steps for Rad Techs:
• Learn simple steps to reenergize your career—whether it’s attending an ASRT event, volunteering, participating in a networking group, or exploring leadership training. Community, growth, and a sense of purpose are essential antidotes to burnout.

Takeaways & Resources:

• Burnout often looks like silence, disengagement, or “going numb”—not just physical fatigue.
• Growth and connection are vital: You’re not lazy or broken if you crave change.
• The ASRT offers more than CE credits: think advocacy, volunteer roles, networking, and leadership programs.
• Take the step: Visit asrt.org, explore events, directed readings, and volunteer possibilities.
• “Connection is the antidote to burnout.” Share this episode with a colleague who needs to hear it.

Recommended Links:

• ASRT Events & Conferences
• ASRT Volunteer Pathways
• ASRT Leadership Development Program
• A Couple of Rad Techs Podcast – More Episodes

If This Episode Helped You:

Hit subscribe, leave a review, and share with another rad tech or therapist who might feel alone in their struggles. Your peace is the most important protocol you’ll ever protect.

Connect with Us:

• Comment your burnout stories below—how did you make it through?
• Follow for more honest, practical conversations about life in radiologic technology.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Silence Is a Warning Sign: Why Disconnection Is Killing Your Career

Hello and welcome back to a couple of rad techs podcasts.

I am Sean, your host of today's episode.

And today's episode is for the medical imaging and radiation therapy radiologic technologist who's been feeling like they've hit a wall.

Yep.

You're showing up, doing your job, but somehow you feel more tired than ever.

I know you can relate.

Not tired like I need a nap, but tired like, is this all there is?

I recently did a presentation about this topic and it it about that sometimes you just go into work and you're like, I'm really good at what I do, but is this all that there is to my profession?

So we're being real in this conversation.

You're not burned out just because of the hours, Right?

All of us work either a 12 hour shift, a 10 hour shift, an 8 hour shift.

Some of us work 16s.

It's not the hours so much.

I come from work on a 12 hour shift sometimes and it's, it's literally not the hours or the work per se.

But I'm just like, that day took me out.

That day was a rough one.

It makes me start questioning things.

Right.

But again, you're not just burned out because of the hours, you're burned out because you feel stuck.

I've been there, thankfully, I've made my way through there.

But honestly, sometimes even now, I get to a point in my career and I'm like, should I go left, should I go right?

Am I going the right direction?

You know, you see so many things dangling out there.

You don't see any dangling out there.

And you're like, where am I going to be in the next five years?

And nobody told you that radiology technology, medical imaging, radiation therapy, like us actually have options.

Right.

We didn't know that getting into this profession.

I didn't.

If you did, why didn't you tell me?

If you're listening to this and you knew how many options we had, why didn't you tell me?

Now there are some of you out there fortunate enough to have family members and parents who were in this profession.

There are a lot of you that I'm meeting by doing this podcast and being on social media that have family members, long generations of medical imaging professionals.

So you knew about this.

Wow, great for you.

Because I only knew there was nursing and being a doctor because all I have is my family are in the healthcare field, are nurses though, and that's really what's portrayed.

So those of us that know about it, wow, we can spread the Word to individuals coming in now and help them to not get to the point where we are, where we maybe feel stuck because we didn't know there were options.

We don't know what the options are.

We weren't strategic at the beginning, but that's okay.

We all are back at the same point.

So today I'm going to break down these three things.

Why burnout is deeper than exhaustion, how the asrt help me feel seen again, and it can help you as well.

And what simple steps you can take to protect your peace and grow your career.

Because y' all peace is priceless.

So if you've ever said, I love this job, I love the people I work with, I love the patients, I'm close to home, but I don't know how much longer I can do it like this.

Notice, notice, do it like this.

I had someone at a, at a presentation I was doing say to me, you know, my last one, my last kids out the house, I don't have to work this way anymore.

That was eye opening for me because I never thought about it in that direction.

When the kids leave, when things, life changes, you don't have to work that same.

You don't have any little kids anymore that you got to pick up from daycare.

Now they're in middle school, they're a little more independent.

So you can change around your lifestyle when it comes to your career.

And now that they're going off to college or they're getting married and moving out, you don't have to work this way any longer.

So if this, this episode is for you, if any of those things are, are relatable to you.

So we think about burnout in one way, but sometimes it's not how we think.

Burnout in our field doesn't always look like falling apart.

I know there are a lot of social media things out there where nurses are, oh my goodness, I'm burned out.

We just don't have the same work type and work burnout as nurses.

In my opinion.

We got into this medical imaging profession for a reason.

And we don't deal with the same things that nursing and other health care do.

But we still get burned out.

You guys don't, don't let the narrative or anyone make you feel like you have such an easy job in medical imaging.

What are you burned out from?

If they only knew, right?

So burnout in our field, it doesn't always look like falling apart.

Sometimes it looks like silence.

We've all worked with someone before, just quiet.

They don't have any Input.

They don't have an opinion.

They're just here, do their job, go.

That could be us.

It looks like doing your 12 hour shift and then sitting in your car after staring at the steering wheel.

Y', all, sometimes I don't want to turn on the radio, I don't want to get on the phone.

I don't want to do anything but just drive, just drive.

It looks like not speaking up anymore because what's the point?

We, we've been there, y'.

All, we have been there.

We've seen it, or it's been us.

It's like, you know what?

I've said this 20,000 times.

No one's going to do anything about it.

They're not going to listen to my opinion.

It's not going to make a difference.

So I'm just not going to say anything.

I'm going to come to work, do my job, and that's it.

All the while, you're slowly, slowly burning out.

Remember, you're not lazy, you're not broken.

You just starve for growth.

We all need to grow.

Don't let anybody tell you, well, if you don't want to be in leadership, if you don't want to do this, don't want to do that, you're lazy, you're not, you don't want to grow.

There are different ways to grow.

And let me just say clearly, burnout doesn't just come from doing too much.

You know, we hear that all the time.

You're doing too much, that's why you're burned out.

Pull back on some of the other things.

That's not always the case.

It comes from feeling like you have nothing left to grow into.

It comes from feeling like you have nothing left to grow into.

So we all have a breaking point, right?

I know I had a breaking point.

I'm going to be very vulnerable because I remember my breaking point.

I had a couple breaking points, but they were different kind of breaking points.

It was, you know, when I just couldn't seem to get that Mr.

Registry together.

It took me three tries to take my MRI past my MRI registry.

And it wasn't because I didn't know the information.

I was burned out.

I didn't have support where I was working.

I didn't have people at my job cheering me on to, you could succeed, you can.

You know, it took, it finally took a stranger that I didn't know who had heard about my struggle through others.

And they said, I got some for you.

I think this will help you.

I was at my Breaking point.

I was exhausted of trying, and I was like, I'm just going to go back to ct. What's the point?

I remember that like it was yesterday.

And.

And maybe yours is different, but the point is, we all have a breaking point.

We go to our car after the shift and whatever it is, or we're sitting in our car going, Taking the kids to softball, or just doing.

Looking in the mirror, getting ready for bed, and we're just wondering, sometimes we may say, do they even see us?

Or am I just a person who always says, yes, we've been there.

I've been a yes person.

I remember being at my breaking point because I was at a job where I just.

I worked all the call, I did the weekends because they were like, well, so and so has this to do.

So and so has this to do.

You live closer.

Can't you just come in?

And I always said yes.

I eventually got very numb to it.

I wasn't mad, I wasn't sad.

I just got numb.

And at some point, I did have a breaking point.

And that's when I knew something had to shift.

Not just the job, but within me.

You all will come to that point.

You know, things have to shift.

And right after this break, I'm going to tell you that one encounter with the ASRT member that completely flipped my mindset and opened doors I didn't even know were there.

So here's what happened.

Throughout the years, I realized that I enjoy talking to people.

I enjoy doing radiology and medical imaging.

So I started a podcast, and it wasn't about radiology.

Eventually, my husband said, you should start talking about radiology.

And I'm like, okay, yeah, I'll start doing that.

But I really still wasn't convinced, y'.

All.

And then I got invited to a podcast cohort with some professionals that really encouraged me to scrap the other topic of my podcast and talk about radiology.

They were like, how exciting.

Nobody really knows what you all do.

And it gave me courage to talk about something that I didn't feel was worthy of being spoken about, something that was taking care of my livelihood, something that was burning me out.

But it gave me an outlet now to release some of those things that have been pent up inside that I needed to release about my profession and really kind of grasp my appreciation, help.

Help me appreciate medical imaging a lot more.

And when I started doing this podcast, it opened up an opportunity where I saw someone running for office on the srt and I reached out to them.

I reached out to many people to be on my podcast.

And some didn't show up, some didn't want to be a part, but this person agreed.

Now, I probably had 20 downloads at the time.

I didn't have a lot, but I knew that if I just kept asking people and kept showing up with what I knew was something that was near and dear to my heart and talk about from my heart and my experience, they would see that this person saw it came on.

I was able to freely ask questions about the ASRT because I didn't know I was asking my questions.

And when they explained to me what the ASRT's mission was, invited me to go to the website, look it up, I went on and I saw all of these events that were there.

I mean like events.

There were opportunities to volunteer, there were opportunities to go to conferences.

There were opportunities to be involved in different ways as students, not as technologists, to even be involved on higher levels like changing, changing laws.

There were so many things that I was like, why I didn't know any of this.

And at a time in my career and in my life, I needed this because I was still struggling with that burnout and trying to figure out my direction.

I credit reaching out to an individual I didn't know, but we had something in common radiology.

And I had some questions about the SRT that I felt no one could answer.

But people who were involved with this particular organization and what better place was to invite them on my podcast.

I am so grateful I did that because it opened up my mind first of all, and showed me ways that I could protect my well being in this profession, grow in my career, really take, get involved in areas that I was an expert in and things I could do.

I just personally feel volunteering, giving back always makes you feel better, always.

Whether you're volunteering at a pet, a pet shelter or a homeless shelter, or with the srt.

That is to me, one of the ways that the SRT helps us manage burnout.

It gives us as, through my story, it gives us an opportunity to connect with other individuals in the profession.

I met so many people by being a member of the SRT through the community chats, the community threads, reading how others are questioning or asking questions or making moves within the profession, things that I may be asked myself but never had an answer or didn't know to ask.

And they're asking these in these community threads.

And I get to read these and see what other individuals in the profession are coming up with, maybe struggles that I'm having and able to really kind of shift my mindset and recover from burnout.

This has been a long, a long recovery.

This has not been.

My situation was years ago, but I really feel like I never was able to fully recover until I found that resource to help me to patch up those areas that made me feel more fulfilled within my profession.

And I credit that to the SRT with doing that because I've been able to find volunteer community.

I've been able to find advocacy community that fit my lifestyle and my personality.

I've been able to attend conferences instead of searching to see which one is the best conference.

They've got quality conferences.

They got opportunities for you to speak, which for some, that's a great outlet.

That's something they're really good at.

There are ways to get scholarships.

Like, people are always out there finding money.

Imagine how that helps your well being.

They have directed readings.

I'm able to do directed readings instead of out there trying to search for this ceu, that CEU and hope that is quality and contributes to me as a professional, my education.

I don't have to worry about any of that as a member of the asrt.

And those are that.

That's my vulnerable story.

I gave you two of how I struggled with burnout, and there are many more.

I'm sure you have your own story.

I would love to hear you share it in the comments.

Let me know how you overcame burnout, how you're trying to overcome burnout.

And I want you guys to know this is no overnight thing.

Like I said, this is years of catching up situations that have burned me out, you know, and.

And one way to do that for me has been helpful is joining the asrt.

The multiple things I've been able to do which have helped me to gain community, to gain a sense of who I am and what I can do in this profession.

I really kind of had no clue until I saw the opportunities that were out there.

Sometimes it just takes a proper layout for you to be able to see, you know, someone to just lay it out for you.

So SRT helps you protect your piece, not just in CEU tracking.

And I think we get caught up on that.

Now.

That is a fantastic thing I'm gonna tell you.

That gives me a lot of peace.

The other day I just went to my profile and I was like, well, how many CE credits I got?

You know, because I'm coming up on my, my binder and I'm like, wait a second, how many, how many do I have?

I don't.

I don't remember.

There's so many other things going on.

So I'm not taking anything away from the SRT.

They handle my CEUs, and I'm not ashamed to say that's something else I could take off my plate to give me peace.

They have a toolkit for burnout prevention.

If you were to maybe their event tabs, we talked about that.

You can go to asrt.org and search the events.

You can.

That way you can grow, you can learn, you can connect.

These are important ways to avoid burnout and to manage burnout and prevent it.

Volunteer pathways.

You get to serve on committees, give feedback, even mentor new technologists in the field.

It never hurts to volunteer advocacy programs.

If you ever want to speak up for your profession and you don't have the personal platform for it, you have a space at the asrt.

You have your own lane.

You have your own space because you may not know how.

They.

They know how, and they'll welcome you.

Networking spaces.

Some of the best career pivots I've seen started with the DM from someone that you met at an ASRT event.

I get messages and I give messages all the time.

Leadership development.

I'm tell you this one right here, I'm waiting on my chance.

I haven't been a member long enough.

But y', all, as soon as I qualify, as soon as soon as I qualify, I am applying for the leadership development program.

I just haven't been a member long enough.

I'm almost there.

I'm almost there, but you can be, too.

I did not find out about this leadership development until I had a young lady on my podcast, and she's a SRT member.

That's how I got guests on my podcast.

Being a member, reaching out to members.

Would you like to be a guest?

Sure.

You remember?

Yeah.

Let me get on.

Let me help you out.

Let's work together.

Let's collaborate.

She after the podcast, she said, have you ever thought about being in the leadership program by the srt?

And I was like, the what?

The who didn't know anything?

You know, you could be part of stuff sometimes.

And I'll be honest, you don't always look at all the details of your membership.

I wasn't.

It's a lot.

It's a lot, y'.

All.

But that's why you have other members that hip you to things and they tell you, check this out.

I immediately went and checked it out.

I didn't.

I hadn't been a member long enough to apply.

But I'm telling you, as soon as I qualify I am going to apply and I encourage you to apply as well to the ASRT so you can take advantage of these Most people do not get leadership development training at all, let alone at the level that they offer it and let alone within medical imaging.

How many of us have been behind the scanner, behind with patient care for a majority of our careers and never ever once were asked to go to any leadership training?

No matter what skills we showed at our job, we never ever got an opportunity to be sent off for a week at leadership training or do a virtual leadership training.

On many, this is the opportunity for you to become a member of an organization that invests in you with leadership development.

And it's not just once.

Once you qualify as a member, these things open up to you.

The SRT isn't about just clocking continual education hours.

It's about reclaiming your confidence as a medical imaging and radiation therapist.

We all deserve it.

So here's your move.

Today, this week, tonight.

Go to asrt.org click on any one of the tabs that interest you.

Events, tabs, conferences, advocacy.

Register for one thing.

A direct reading, a webinar.

Apply to volunteer, even in a small way.

Don't let burnout convince you you are done.

You're not done.

You're disconnected.

And connection is the antidote to burnout.

If this episode helped you, share it with another medical imaging and radiation therapist who silently is struggling.

Follow the podcast for more honest radiologic technology talk.

Because your piece is the most important protocol you'll ever protect.