Whitney Bowden
Communications 1010
Interview Part 1
I chose to interview Josh Andrus, who is a full radiographic technician at one of my
company’s sister clinics. I chose him because he is the only full tech that we have within our
company, and if I’m going to go to radiography school I want to go for the full tech program.
I contacted Josh through email; I used our employee email directory to find him. I asked
him if it would be possible to interview him at his place of work. I thought it would give me
a chance to see what else he has going on throughout his shift besides doing x-ray’s. With
him and I working for the same company, and knowing there wouldn’t be any patient
confidentiality issues I also asked if he would be able to show me the machine and possibly
see him do an x-ray on an actual patient. He and his manager let me know that this would
be possible.
The reason I chose to interview a full radiographic technician is because I am
looking into the full radiographic program. I am undecided on my career goal at this point. I
currently work as a medical assistant and absolutely love my job. I get to perform testing
on patients, and get to have a close one on one relationship with the patients. With this
being said I was first looking into the nursing program because the job title is close to a
medical assistant. However nurses get to do a lot more testing, have more responsibilities,
have more patient interaction, and have a much higher salary than medical assistants. The
waiting list for the nursing program is a few years long though, and I just don’t know if I
want to wait that long to get into my career. The next best thing in my opinion is the
radiographic technician program. They still get patient interaction, which I love. I also think
it would be interesting to see the outcome of x-rays.
Full radiographic technicians perform diagnostic imaging exams on patients like xray’s, CT’s, MRI’s, and mammograms. They get the patients ready for the exam by
explaining the procedure, removing any clothing or jewelry that may affect the outcome of
the image, position the patient in the correct spot to get the image, and with some machines
they develop the film. All radiographic technicians’s have to follow direct orders by a
physician. The physician will read the image or have a radiologist over read it to determine
the outcome of what is going on with the patient.
The education for a radiographic technician is formal training at a college or
university. There are also some specialty schools that may also offer a radiography
program. The student can either receive an associate degree, or just a certificate depending
on what kind of school they attend. Most certificates for radiographic technicians take 2124 months to complete. They also have the option to be a full radiographic technician, or
extremities only. The full tech program is longer due to needing to know more about the
body and x-ray’s the tech will be taking.
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The salary for a radiographic technician varies depending on the schooling, the
tech’s degree, and which type of radiographic technician. Since I am looking into being a full
radiographic tech that is the salary I researched. The lower end of the scale is around
$30,000 a year. And the higher end is around $58,000 a year. The more experiences and the
more continued education a radiographic technician has, the higher the pay scale is. It also
depends on the local of the job. In hospital settings where the tech would be pretty busy the
salary is a little higher. Where as in a small clinic setting the salary would be slightly lower.
Since I already work in the healthcare field and work for a large company I’m
including my company’s mission statement. “Above all else, we are committed to the care
and improvement of human life. In recognition of this commitment, we strive to deliver
high-quality, cost-effective healthcare in the communities we serve. In pursuit of our
mission, we believe the following value statements are essential and timeless. We
recognize and affirm the unique and intrinsic worth of each individual. We treat all those
we serve with compassion and kindness. We act with absolute honesty, integrity and
fairness in the way we conduct our business and the way we live our lives. We trust our
colleagues as valuable members of our healthcare team and pledge to treat one another
with loyalty, respect and dignity.” HCA mission statement and values.
Interview Plan
Hi Josh, I’m Whitney. I work at South Jordan Family Medicine as a medical assistant.
I am doing a project for my communication’s class, which is to interview someone in a
career field that we are interested in. I am undecided between a radiography technician,
and a nurse. So I am here to ask you a few questions about your career and schooling.

Schooling
o What school did you go to? (Primary, Closed)
Why was this school the one you went with? (Secondary,
Closed)
o What other schools did you look into? (Primary, Open)
o Would you recommend the school you went to? (Primary, Closed)
Do you feel as if you got the best education at that school?
(Secondary, Closed)
o How many programs did the school offer?
Is there a full radiographic technician, and a limited
radiographic technician program offered?
o Was there a waiting list for you to get into the program?
If so, how long is the wait?
Is there any way to get in faster?
Is the wait list competitive?
Can you do the pre-requirement classes while you’re on the
wait list?
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What are some of the prerequisite courses?
Is it beneficial to get your generals done while on the wait list?
o Is the cost of the program the same as taking a semester of classes?
Is there an additional cost for the program?
o How long was the program?
Does the school offer an accelerated program?
Is the program full time year around?
How long does it take to get through the program?
What were the hours of the classes for the program?
Do they offer the program at night?
o How many hours of clinical work did you have to do?
Did the school set you up with the clinical work, or did you
have to find somewhere to get your hours?
Did you get to pick your clinical hours?

Career
o When you were searching for your first job after school, did you find a
lot of options? (Primary, Closed)
What was the best way for you to search for current job
offerings for the position you were looking for? (Secondary,
Closed)
Did you get a lot of job offerings? (Secondary, Closed)
Is there a lot of job opportunities in the field? (Secondary,
Closed)
o What do you love most about your job? (Primary, Open)
What else do you do beside taking x-rays? (Secondary, Open)
Do you get a lot of patient interaction? (Secondary, Closed)
Do you ever have repeat patients? (Secondary, Closed)
Do you ever call the patient with the results? (Secondary,
Closed)
Are you on your feet most of your shift? (Secondary, Closed)
o Is there anything about your job that you don’t like? (Primary, Open)
Is your job physically demanding in anyway? (Secondary,
Open)
o On average, how long does it take to take the actual x-ray? (Primary,
Closed)
Are there different kinds of x-rays that you do? (Secondary,
Closed)
Do any of the positions hurt the patient? (Secondary, Closed)
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Is it dark in the x-ray room while the x-ray is being taken?
(Secondary, Closed)

Safety
o I know that x-rays can be harmful, what kind of protection do you
have to take to keep yourself safe? (Primary, Closed)
Do you have to wear any kind of mask? (Secondary, Closed)
Do you have to wear gloves at all? (Secondary, Closed)
Do you have to wear a shield, like the patient? (Secondary,
Closed)
o What kind of safety precautions do you use for the patient? (Primary,
Open)
Are there different types of shields for the patient? (Secondary,
Open)
Can anyone be in the room with the patient during the x-ray?
(Secondary, Closed)
Should the patient close their eyes during the x-ray?
(Secondary, Closed)

Clearing house Questions
o Is there anything else you think I should know prior to going into this
field? (Primary, Open)
Is there anything you would like to tell me that I didn’t cover?
(Secondary, Open)
Ok, well thank you so much Josh for letting me sit down and interview you today. I really
learned a lot from talking to you. You have helped me in my career decision.

Summary of the interview – Future action
We will be conducting the interview on February 15th 2012 at Josh’s
clinic so I can maybe see an actual x-ray. Our appointment is at noon,
during Josh’s lunch so he can sit down with no interruptions. I plan on
wear business attire for the interview. I have decided to put my
questions on note cards, and I’ll write down notes on the note cards
from what Josh’s answers are. That way I can keep the answers with
the questions.
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