How To Tackle The MRI Technologist Shortage?

How To Tackle The MRI Technologist Shortage?

Join host Chaundria Singleton on A Couple of Rad Techs Podcast as she delves into the critical issue of the MRI technologist shortage in the healthcare community. In this compelling episode, listeners gain insight into the role of MRI technologists, the impact of the shortage on patient care, and the potential solutions to this growing crisis. Through in-depth analysis and real-life experiences, the episode sheds light on the challenges faced by MRI technologists, the impacts of burnout, and the urgent need for intervention in addressing this shortage.

Chaundria explores the multifaceted nature of the shortage, discussing the root causes and the potential solutions being implemented in healthcare organizations. From increasing job appeal through improved compensation and benefits to investing in advanced technology and training programs, the episode offers a comprehensive view of the efforts to combat the shortage. Additionally, with a focus on the future of radiology and medical imaging, the episode emphasizes the value of MRI technologists in delivering state-of-the-art diagnosis and life-saving care for patients.

In this thought-provoking and informative episode, listeners gain a deeper understanding of the vital role MRI technologists play in healthcare and the urgent need for collaborative efforts to address the shortage. From practical insights to personal experiences, A Couple of Rad Techs Podcast offers a compelling exploration of the MRI technologist shortage and its far-reaching impacts on patient care and the healthcare industry. Tune in to learn more about this pressing issue and the ongoing efforts to secure a skilled and valued MRI workforce.

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MRI technologist shortage, radiology, healthcare community, shortage of MRI technologists, crisis, medical imaging technology, MRI, magnetic resonance imaging, body structures, tissues, cancer, heart disease, injuries, radiology, radiation, MRI scanner, software, Siemens scanner, AI technology, remote MRI scanning, patient care, claustrophobia, scanner operation, quality imaging, healthcare issue, healthcare organizations, burnout, staff shortage, MRI safety, MRI accidents, magnets, patient care, solution to MRI shortage

Transcript

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On this episode of a couple of Brad Techs, we are talking about a really hot topic, MRI technologist shortage. Yes. You have heard it if you are in the radiology and health care community that there is a shortage of MRI technologists. Health care professionals are in a crisis right now as far as being able to support, hospitals and medical imaging staffing. There's a all time shortage all over here health care. But we're gonna talk mainly about MRI technologists, magnetic resonance imaging technologists. Who are they? What do they do? Why is there a shortage? How can we fix the shortage? And, Basically, what are your thoughts? I wanna know what you are thinking. So before we go forward, make sure you hit the subscribe button if you aren't subscribed already. We talk about all things radiology on this podcast, and I'd love to thank my sponsors. Magicmind It's the sponsor for this amazing episode. So let's get right into it. An introduction into magnetic resonance. Magnetic Resonance Imaging or MRI is a medical imaging technology. This technology allows us to be able to Medical image check med medical imaging technology has advanced tremendously over the past few decades allowing doctors to see inside of the body in incredible detail. One of the most powerful but complex imaging modalities is magnetic resonance imaging or MRI. It's better known name. MRI uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves to essentially look inside of Body structures, tissues, and they help to diagnose conditions like cancer, heart disease, injuries, and so much more. Behind every MRI scanner is a specially trained technologist, not a button pusher, but a MRI technologist, and they have extensive training. MRI techs are extensively trained in physics, anatomy, patient care, and actual radiology or radiation, excuse me, or radiology or diagnostic X-ray many times. What's most important is that they safely operate these $1,000,000 scanners and Calibrate the machinery, position patients, communicate to put patients at ease because many of you out there are claustrophobic. You may know it. You may not know it. But it's our job not only to operate the scanners and get these great quality images for doctors, but also to make sure you're at ease during your exam, which allows us to be able to get quality imaging for your diagnosis. And we use specialized software in order to capture these images and data. Each machine and maker has their own software, and the technologist has to be trained to use that particular software. So if they're scanning on a Siemens scanner And depending on the software of that scanner, so you could have the manufacturer have a Siemens Esprit, but it could have different software. And if the technologist is not up to date on the software, which changes over time, in the 21 years I've been scanning, MRI scans are totally different when it comes to software, and that's what's most important is that we are specifically trained to get quality imaging, and it's more than pushing buttons. But we're gonna talk of how that plays into the MRI shortage that is happening today and talk about some solutions. If this is a career that you're interested in, you wanna definitely listen. If you are a technologist that is in radiology or medical imaging already, and thinking of making advancements to your certifications, listen up. You may wanna choose MRI. One other thing that many don't know is that even experienced technologists require constant learning in order to keep pace With the complex and evolving MRI technology and techniques, they are ever changing. From the 21 years when I started, you know, things have really advanced from implants to certain implants that there were they were a no no when it came to scanning, that now we can scan them or there are conditions that we can that can have to be met in order us to be able to scan them. Who knew we'd be scanning patients with pacemakers for MRI? I sure would not have. And now they also have AI technology And also remote MRI scanning. There's just so many things that are gonna kinda help with the solution they feel. Given the vital given the vital role MRI technologists play in health care, there is a very concerning trend happening nationwide and growing shortage, excuse me, happening nationwide, a growing shortage of qualified MRI technologists. While under While under discussed, data shows this shortage is reaching a crisis level. Yes. A crisis level. Some reports even warn warn Some reports warn we may see demand for MRI technologists outpace supply by over 20% in coming years. This shortage threatens to substantially slow crucial testing. I've heard other technologists say that they actually have a waiting list of months prior to patients being able to get their exams. Months on a waiting list. I worked at a place back in the day where there was a 3 month waiting list at one time when the shortage was happening as well back then. So we see it happening again, and this is the prediction. But more importantly, departments operating under capacity delays lifesaving diagnosis and treatments for countless patients, and that is why we're having this discussion. One study even projects delays resulting from understaffed MRI departments could contribute to over 22100 additional cancer deaths per year in the US alone. It's an urgent health care issue that isn't getting enough attention. So we've seen that a shortage of MRI technologists is already having Stantial impacts across hospitals and medical centers. MRI departments are struggling to run a full at full capacity to meet imaging scan demands. They are chronically understaffed with vacant MRI tech positions and staying open for months. This forces remaining MRI techs to take on excessive workloads leading to burnout. I did a recent video short from video on burnout in radiology, and the response was amazing how many felt exactly that way. But, you guys, we Have to really understand why is this shortage happening. Let me know in the comments. Why do you think that MRI in particular is experiencing this shortage? The forces remaining MRI techs to take excuse me. This forces MRI techs to take on excessive oh, I already said that. Nixed that. Departments have no choice but to delay or reschedule MRI scans. While hospitals try to prioritize the most urgent cases, even those patients face longer waits. And for less acute issues like chronic conditions, patients endure delays of weeks and even months just to be scanned. This slows down initial diagnosis. The ripple effects of these delays can be severe. It means cancer patients anxiously wait to know if the disease has Metastasize. Trauma patients with unknown internal injuries or bleeding endure additional risk. Neurology patients with conditions like multiple Sclerosis or seizures see progression of their disease diseases while in limbo. Across every field of medicine, lack of imaging insights Hampers patient care. This is how vital medical imaging is to the health care community. Many people do not understand how important Medical imaging and radiation therapy are to health care. Disease advancement lowers treatment effect. And think about this. Injuries not promptly imaged end up requiring more invasive interventions later on. Physicians emphasize that when it comes to diagnosing illnesses, timeliness is next to godliness. Delays degrade patient health. Another impact, MRI departments Another impact is MRI departments pulling in staff from other imaging areas. Often, they take X-ray techs or CT technologies to help with basic MRI scanning. However, few have the specialized MRI training and expertise needed to handle more complex exams. This creates bottlenecks where only simple scans get completed. It also short staffs and overworks techs and other imaging areas. Furthermore, relying on borrowed staff unfamiliar with MRI Introduces safety risk. That's a whole another topic, but we're gonna talk about MRI safety and MRI accidents later. This one, the shortage plays into that. So a lot of people wonder why are we seeing so many increase in imaging, MRI safety, or m r Why are we seeing so much increase in MRI accidents? This is one of the reasons, and it's a very important reason. Those powerful magnets require Careful protocols to avoid accidents. And if inexperienced staff miss subtle scan anomalies, doctors may miss things like Tumors or tears, again, endangering patients. Finally, stretched, thin, established left working excessive hours experience more burnout in occupational injuries. So if you're already short on technologies, and then the ones you have get hurt, Now you're even more sure. This is a problem. Techs are already prone to back problems, endure harm, lugging away heavy equipment, in maneuvering obese patients for 10 hour shifts. Stressed radiologists face higher rates of diagnosis diagnostic errors reading overly packed caseloads. This just further worsens the shortage that we face in MRI, cascading the impact across health care organizations. But the good news is health care leaders are now taking steps to alleviate these interrelated issues. Let's talk about the solutions. In some instances, we find that health care organizations are scrambling to implement Solutions. A key priority is making the job more appealing and tangent tenable. Making excuse me. A key priority is making a job more appealing through improved compensation, benefits, and advancement opportunities. I did a poll on one of my Instagram stories, and that was it. Many people didn't want more money. They wanted more advancement. They had been in jobs for a long time and hadn't seen the advancement opportunities, so they were burned out. These are ways of making sure, As a hospital, you're not scrambling. Offer things money, benefits, and benefits can be a multiple multiple options. Advancement opportunities. Everybody is motivated everyone is motivated by money. Many want to advance either educational wise, leadership wise, some type of advancement opportunity. This means offering competitive salaries, bonuses for overtime, generous paid time off, Retirement contributions and other perks aimed to attract and retain. That is it. You can attract, but you can't keep. That is creating a shortage for particular health care organizations. And many hospitals are creating dedicated MRI tech career ladders, which built in experience based pay bumps. Others offer tuition reimbursement for a technologist pursuing bachelor's or advanced imaging credentials to reward skilled growth. That is huge. Many people wanna go back to school. If an employer paid for it, do you know how many people would say, sign me up? Even if they weren't getting the pay, they were getting something else in return. Streamlining credential paperwork and fees also helps retain traveling techs long term. Oh my goodness. When I was traveling, just the money you spend on your credentials, getting all that stuff done is if I was offered to be reimbursed for that, That will move that job up more on my scale to over another job. These kinds of incentives and investments in personnel aim to curtail turnover, which has plagued MRI departments all over. Another major push is expanding MRI training programs and slots to graduate on qualified technologists yearly. We're seeing schools pop up all over for people that are already in the field, and for those that maybe already have a bachelor's or an associate's degree. There are some schools where you can go right in and make MRI your primary pathway. I talk about that on one of my videos, short form videos. What is a primary? What is a secondary pathway into the medical imaging? Specifically MRI. That is really important. Some hospitals directly sponsor students training in exchange in exchange for multiyear work commitment post graduation to fill their own vacancies. That is really smart. If you have people already in your organization and you say, I'm gonna pay for you to go to school for MRI, but you have to sign on to work for me to pay it back. So no different from getting your education grants or monies from a state organization or the state that you live in and they pay for your education. In return, either you pay them back the money that they pay for your education or you work in their state for x amount of period of time to pay that loan off. There's no difference. Like, do whatever makes sense for you, but these options should be out there to help with the shortage for There's another thing that many Facilities are really jumping on board to a flexible schedule. This improves work life balance for parents, older staff, and just your Your staff in general, even single people do not want to be at work day in and day out working odd shifts every day of the week. Flexible scheduling is one of the key things. I worked at a facility to where they only offer 3 twelves. They did not do 4 tens. They didn't do 5 eights. They only did 3 twelves. They never had a problem with staff. They still never have a problem with staff. They paid incentives. Like, there was, like, $8 a hour extra on top of what you made already if you work the weekend shift. I hear there are places now that are giving incentives of 20 to $40 on top of what you're already making as an incentive to work those hours that no one wants to work, which is weekends mainly. Evenings. 20, 40 extra dollars more a hour? I would work. I would not say no. I mean, I'm gonna tell you, if those things are out there when I was in the field. I would definitely take them. That is a great deal. Finally, some Facilities are investing in AI tools to alleviate pressures. Automated patient screening forms reduce clerical task. Machine learning can suggest Scan protocols parameters to limit repeats from errors. Voice recognition for image labeling removes typing needs. While technology cannot replace MRI technologist. It does handle different aspects that allow the technologist to focus their expertise on operating the scanners and care for the patients. And I talked a little bit about remote scanning. There are some facilities because they don't have someone that can do cardiac exams or technologist period, and they have the the actual amount of people that are coming in. They cannot keep it staffed, so they have Centers where people can actually work from remote centers and people scan Different scanners, maybe 2, maybe 3 scanners at a time, and there's a aid at the facility actually positioning the patient and screening the patient. There are some opinions up in the air as to whether this is safe or not, but it is being done, and it has been being done for a very long time. So the reality is solving the multifaceted MRI staffing crisis requires commitment across health care systems, but it must be prioritized now before the shortage gets even worse. So a combination of boosting pay, expanding training slots, incentivizing new talent, and talent that has already been loyal to Your facility is so important, not just your new talent. All of your workers and staff should be incentivized. I think facilities really don't do themselves a justice and do an injustice by paying new staff more than you're paying staff, that has been there all of this time. Offering cross training to new people coming in versus to people that are already there or hiring new graduates from MRI programs when you already have staff there to ask, would you like to be cross trained? Would you like us to send you to a MRI school? And in exchange, they are willing to sign x y z amount of years to work for you to pay it back. Those are all ways to retain instead of looking outside of the organization. I know a really big organization in the US that has done that. From within, they offer those employees that have been there for a long time to cross train an MRI. These employees have said yes, and they were So excited because they didn't wanna leave the organization, but they were getting burned out, and they wanted more money. They wanted to learn new things. So, You know, this is something that can help the shortage when it comes to MRI, and these are practical things. I would love to know from you all. What are some practical things that maybe your facility has done or that you would suggest that they do as a technologist or as a student? In conclusion, as we've explored, the shortage of MRI technologists is already tangling, impacting patients and hospitals across the country. We all know that. But without meaningful intervention, the situation is poised to get much more dire. With MRI use and demand increasing while retirement and attrition thin the ranks of qualified technologists. Projections estimate the shortage ballooning to over 20 Needed staff in coming years. This makes tackling the shortage a urgent priority to health care industry leaders. Simply put, without staff to run MRI scanners, life saving diagnosis get missed or delayed for millions of patients. But excuse me. But multi pro. But collaborative efforts but collaborative efforts can stem the tide and even reverse shortages over time. The 1st prong is training. Expanding program capacity and Funding to graduate more MRI techs annually, qualified MRI techs annually. Second, recruitment, making these Critical yet demanding jobs more appealing through improvement of compensation, advancement pathways, and work conditions. 3rd, retention, Creating environments where exceptional MRI personnel want to practice long term through Schedule flexibility, career development, and technology advancements. If hospitals, policymakers, and training programs unite around these pillars of expanding supply, recruitment, and retention. We can secure the MRI workforce needed to meet rising demand. But perhaps most importantly, supporting MRI technologists means they can provide the best care for patients. Bolstering this behind the scenes workforce translates directly into superior outcomes, faster diagnosis, more lives saved, and proved quality of life for countless of people relying on MRI scanning. In a health care landscape where advanced Technology often rightfully takes center stage. We cannot overlook the incredible value of skilled, compassionate, and conscientious specialists operating that technology, MRI, magnetic resonance machines. The MRI technologist makes state of the art diagnosis working seamlessly. People think what we do is so easy. It's not. There's a lot of science that goes into it. Each patient is totally different. So, MRI technologist expertise and dedication helps detection, recovering from Trump. Excuse me. Their expertise and dedication helps detect excuse me. Their expertise and dedication helps make state of the art. What in the world? Their expertise and dedication helps detection, Monitoring your treatment of diseases for patients fighting cancer, coping with dementia, recovering from trauma, battling infection, and managing chronic conditions. No question. Investing in MRI technologies pays dividends in better care. This time is now to a fuller This time is now for a fuller recognition and support to address MRI staffing shortages. With vision, cooperation, and purpose, We can match the growth of this incredible diagnosis tool. We can match the growth of this incredible diagnostic tool with the world class workforce cooperating it. Here's to the future of life saving MRI technology made possible by talented, caring, and valued MRI technologists. Thank you for listening to this podcast, and I would love to know what do you guys think as far as the MRI shortage. Is it good for technologists? Is it bad for patients? And what does it mean for the future of radiology and medical imaging? As a MRI tech, we talk about burnout and not having enough time to take care of yourself and lack of appreciation. As a MRI tech, we just talked this episode, we're talking about burnout and not having enough energy. Let me tell you about Magicmind, our sponsor today. Me, personally, I've been at MRI tech for 21 years and working every shift known to man, and I have struggled with my energy levels staying steady throughout the day. At midday, I wanted to take a nap, and it just wasn't cutting it, taking a nap. But If you're a coffee drinker, you can understand what I'm saying. But thankfully, I found this little shot to help me get my energy back and be fully focused. I like Excuse me. I take it because it's so easy to use. It tastes great, and it helped me a lot. But don't let the green color fool you. The taste is great. Even my husband, the other rad tech approves, and he doesn't drink anything green. I've noticed that my mental sharpness is faster and constant all day. 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