What Ethical Issues Do Nuclear Medicine Technologists Face? Nuclear medicine technologists are critical members of the healthcare system using radioactive materials to diagnose and treat pulmonary, gastrointestinal, as well as endocrine disorders. Nevertheless, their work is crucial here and they have a wide range of ethical questions that should be taken into account. The following article is discussing the main ethical dilemmas nuclear medicine technologists may encounter, such as radiation and patient’s consent, and the use of the radioactive materials.
Radiation Exposure:
Protecting Patients:
However, since a significant part of the work of nuclear medicine technologists is centered on radiation, one of the biggest responsibilities of the offender is to minimize the radiation dose that will be administered to the patient. Technologists need always to weigh the utility of using diagnostic image with the probabilities of adverse health impacts resulting from radiation. This can be of course difficult if the patients in question are children, pregnant women or the third age group.
Hi, my name is Kate Savelberg. I’m a nuclear medicine technologist and also a full-time faculty member here at the Mitchner Institute. I’ve been in the nuclear medicine field for a little over 10 years now.
I’m Adam Zesi. I’m a nuclear medicine technologist, and I’m currently an instructor here at the Missioner Institute, as well as being the radiation safety officer. I’ve been in this field for about 10 years.
What Drove Us to Enter Nuclear Medicine
What drove me to enter into nuclear medicine? It was not a straightforward choice. In undergrad, I knew I was a person that really liked Health Sciences. I had a family whose background was in Health Sciences, and I took an undergraduate course which relied a lot on medical imaging using MRI in order to see what was going on with patients. Once I heard that it injected radio Pharmaceuticals, it immediately caught my eye. I am passionate about anatomy and physiology, and this was allowed me to kind of bring both of those together in Diagnostic Imaging.
Originally, I was a high school teacher teaching General Science, physics, and math. My favorite parts about that were in the labs, using my hands and doing things that were interesting. So I found that with nuclear medicine. Once I heard about the program, it included all of that in one branch of nuclear medicine. You get to use antimatter in PET scans, which I still find really amazing. We get to use syringes, we get to use ECGs, and get to interact a lot with people, and I really like that social aspect as well. So it’s a great combination, and that initially attracted me to the field.
The Role of a Nuclear Medicine Technologist
So, the difference between a nuclear medicine technologist and an x-ray technologist would be nuclear medicine involves the administration of some form of radioactivity, usually that’s done by an injection just through a vein in your arm, and our cameras, which you can see behind me here, they’re going to detect that Tracer and how it localizes in a patient. X-ray is really kind of the other way around. The cameras themselves give off the radiation, it passes through the patient to generate a very high resolution image. So, as a technologist, you’re using a lot of positioning skills that are very crucial when it comes to radiological technology, and in nuclear medicine, you’re really focusing on physiology. So, our pictures might not look as clear, but we’re looking at each patient and what’s unique about their physiology to get the best or most accurate images.
Patient Consent:
Career Paths in Nuclear Medicine
As far as different career paths in nuclear medicine go, in my time here as an educator, I’ve seen a whole variety of students go in different directions. So, for myself, I’ve worked clinically both in hospitals or private clinics, as well as in research, education, obviously, is a direction you could go. Um, going into sales, so sales could involve sales of medical equipment,
it could be into radio pharmaceutical sales, or it could even be into processing, so the actual computer software that we use in order to generate data from our patients’ images. That’s a career that often they’re looking for people who are experts in nuclear medicine in order to develop that software, as well as then teach it to other nuclear medicine technologists.
Outside of that, I’d probably also say there’s radio pharmacy, a big part of what we do. So, if you’re someone who enjoys working in a lab setting, it’s an area where you can be generating radio Pharmaceuticals, which then gets shipped out broader across the province.
Other jobs people don’t think about is perhaps one of the jobs that I have right now, which is the radiation safety officer. Anytime you’re using radiation, not just in the hospital, you need somebody to oversee that.
So, people have gone on to just be an RSO, and also, because we handle radiation, many people have gone on to work with governmental entities, such as the CNSC, which is the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission,
and they oversee all the regulatory rules that we have to follow. So, people have become nuclear safety inspectors, for example, and they appreciate nuclear medicine technologists because we handle a lot of different types of radioactivity.
Favorite Aspects of the Career
My favorite thing about the career was probably what excited me about it in the first place, and that was the idea that we were injecting a radio pharmaceutical. Now, for most patients, that’s probably not what they want to hear, but I liked it because it meant we can image at this cellular level, which is something that other modalities just are not able to do.
And we continue to evolve as a discipline because of advancements in science and technology. It means now we’re imaging cancer cells at a molecular level, and now we’re treating cancer cells at this highly specific level.
was this ability to image physiology and now treat physiology that excited me about nuclear medicine and still continues to do so today.
The thing I love about nuclear medicine is the variety. So, one day, one week, you’ll be working in a shift in CCiac, for example, you’ll be placing ECGs, you’ll be labeling red blood cells, you’ll be making them radioactive. We might also be making aerosol that’s radioactive too,
and checking if there’s a blood clot in your lungs. We’re also here in the lab, where I am right now, and we’re actually preparing the radiopharmaceuticals too. So, there’s a lot of variety in what we’re doing, and it’s never boring.
Future Developments in Nuclear Medicine
Areas of nuclear medicine I see expanding or developing in the future are definitely in the realm of PET Imaging across Canada, as well as therapies. One of the most promising therapies that we see is for prostate cancer, called PSMA, and so many,
many of these are already being done, and we only can expect it to expand in its use with these modalities too. We aren’t working in isolation, so we find ourselves working more with other professions, the radiologists, uh, and other X-ray techs, and working more as an interprofessional team.
Benefits of Pursuing a Career in Nuclear Medicine
The bonus with this program is that even if you find yourself, and you say, you know, at the end of the day, I want to pursue something more, this is a great program that will allow you to open up the doors to other degrees in the future too. So, you’re not limiting yourself to say, I have to stay in this field. The opportunities will continue to grow outside of this job,
and it’s also very rewarding. So, you work with patients, you give them the best scan you can, and there’s a lot of patient care involved. Sometimes we’re with our patients for a few hours. So, if you do like working with people, you do like working with science and technology, this is a job for you.
Continuous Improvement:
Besides, nuclear medicine technologists are encouraged to be dedicated to professionalism and professionalism development, so as to strive for exploring better and better approaches to enhancing benefits for the patients. This mean that practitioners must always be in touch with latest advancements in nuclear medicine technology and in a position to apply them. You can contact us here.
Conclusion:
Among the ethical dilemmas nuclear medicine technologists face in their work they encompass radiation dosage limits which are first addressed irrespective of the patient’s consent as well as the patient’s right to privacy, all the way through with handling radioactive materials. Realizing these challenges, NM technologist can help deliver the best in the best care to the patients and nurture the nuclear medicine technology continually.
