The survey found that 17 percent of U.K. docs felt cardiologists were more likely to be rude or dismissive compared with others specialties. Radiologists fared even worse, with 27 percent saying the imaging experts lagged behind in their manners.

Neurosurgeons (18 percent) and general or specialty surgeons (20 percent) were also seen as more likely than others to be rude or dismissive.

Victoria Bradley, a medical education fellow at King’s College Hospital in London, and colleagues published their results online in Clinical Medicine on Dec. 1.

“He has shown that across multiple hospital trusts a subset of predictable specialties are more likely to be rude, dismissive or aggressive in their communication: radiology, general surgery, neurosurgery and cardiology,” they wrote. “This finding partly conforms to a survey of nurses and medical students in the USA which identified general surgeons, neurosurgeons and obstetrics and gynecology as the specialties most likely to be disruptive and unprofessional.”

 “There may be a perception that rudeness is a mild word, for a mild problem; that as it is a part of everyday life and resilience to it should be a normal part of our reactions and behavior,” they wrote. “He has shown that it is a widespread problem with a large impact on individuals and healthcare organizations. Changing this behavior is likely to be challenging. The recognition that [rudeness, dismissive and aggressive] behavior is damaging and counterproductive is an essential initial message which needs dissemination.”

Some technologist are trying so hard to find a job and trying to find a full time job even harder, and the worse if you are trying to get into the hospital setting or any place that run by union it is near impossible that you can get in ,and if you do you will be lucky if you can get a casual or part time position. Your add get slimmer if you are older than 55 years or if you are handicapped etc. They tell you that there are no discrimination s and they are equal opportunity and have fair hiring policy but it is all bul****.excuse my language,but this get my biscuit crumble.

  You will see that newer graduates with fresher skills that cycled each year following were more desirable as it is easy to work with them and mold them , they get less pay and start from the lower scale of pay and benefits, and they get the worse shifts possible.

“You make your own luck” is not really true, sometimes may be but not 99% true. As most of the time who you know and how you look , do you fit ,how old are you, how high your skirt is can get you the job faster than other .Spare me the detail but I seen it happen in the USA and in Canada. Bosses are hiring their relatives, families and friends they train them on the job and let them work, some may be good and pass the national exam but they have no college or university degree from the USA or Canada in this particular job, let say a sonography job.

Many are coming from the back door or taken a short cut despite that the regulation say that they need technologists, sonographers who graduate in a credited school and have 2 or 5 years experience yet they lie and they take some from the back door because her father , uncle or husband run the clinic, for those people luck is the key beside who you know.

Luck and trying really hard doesn’t make jobs magically appear. Many technologists were exposed to a frontier-like mentality, their advanced degrees meant nothing and everything was about excelling in clinical, clinical, and clinical.

 In more recent years, I have seen a push toward a BA degree but I question if that will give the technology “field” more respect and bring more $$.

 The things at work are simple supply and demand economics, who you know, how much they will save, and how much profit the company will make by hiring technologist with less pay .

Training on the job Is OK but by heaven sake train those students or new graduates that already done the ultrasound program, in the name of quality and patient care and that will in turn reduce your future lawsuits.

Also, it is hard to command “respect” when the technologist has no leverage. Every employer knows for every RT that is let go, there are several to take their place at less cost and with few benefits.

The best advice I can provide: interview as many RTs as you can. Ask them point-blank if they get salary increases, a work schedule that they choose and other benefits. Ask them where they see the field going. Would they pick the field again, if they could? Their answers will give you a lot more insight into the industry and where it might take you.

There are many debates from the radiologist’s point of views in regards to the technologists and sonographers the one thing that many radiologists ask is that

Why are there so many incompetent techs?

Many radiologists are near perfectionists who do have high expectations for quality work; quality imaging allows them to more comfortably figure out what is wrong with the patient’s.

They complain that allot of studies where routinely not performed correctly, or done sloppy. The radiologists have a secret word for this and they call it “technologist sabotage”.

Besides patients dying, the radiologists could be also be sued for missing an important finding that not seen because the exam was not optimally performed by the technologist or the sonographer. Such as; calling fetal demise while it is not, missing tumor in the adrenal, or the gallbladder, missing placenta previa or arm dvt. Sending the ultrasound report under the wrong patient can have a devastation effect. Making the wrong label on the image in regard to the side can be even worse.

I remember back in 1984 I diagnosed a testicular mass in the left tests and have all the characteristic of testicular cancer, after many other examinations the surgeon decided to remove the rt testes .

The nurse operation nurse somehow put the wrong label on the wrong side of the foot and they clean and prepared the left testes and then they remove the left testes and the next day they found they have done a grave mistake. The radiologist and I went and cheeked our films, as we used to do dark room films at that time. We were correct and our labels were correct.

The surgical nurses made the mistakes and the patient had to go under the knife again to remove his remaining testes, the one with the cancer. His lawyer sued the hospital and in the end they got one million dollars. It sad and unfortunate but it will happen to you one day if you keep doing sloppy job and hire sloppy untrained individuals.    

 It’s as if some technologists have no pride in their work. That they’re just winging it: eg sagittal/coronal planes aren’t correct, incorrect timing for ct abdomen/pelvis exams, incorrect positioning on x-rays, sonographers forgets to do part of the exam or document it on tech sheet, MR tech adds or subtract sequences from protocol .

 I don’t mean to say all techs and sonographers sucks. Many are very good, especially seniors and lead techs. I also think these errors are magnified because radiologists interpret 100+ exams a day.

So although each individual tech may be only making a few smallish mistakes per day, they all add up. But I also think some techs just don’t care or do not have the same expectations for quality work as radiologists’ do- that some small errors are okay.

There are several attending radiologists who are always angry about something, they really suck to be around and nothing is ever perfect for them. There are also sloppy techs who just don’t give a crap about anything other than pushing the button.

 From the technologist point of views

As a tech, perfect patients get perfect x-rays. Large Patients who are 300 lbs or more, immobile, aggressive, non-verbal will gets less than perfect images.

Technologist said that it’s all about what that patient can actually do. Sometimes they just can’t hold their breath at all, or move an arm or hold any sort of position. They do the best they can and move on instead of blasting the same patient with radiation over and over and over trying to get that perfect picture, meanwhile risking bodily harm to the technologist because they’re trying to take a swing at them every time they go out and move them.

Most physicians don’t have a clue how we get any image. They send the patient to the clinic with no history and in many times they write the wrong side for the exam and the patients gets upsets and point that that the other side is injured and painful .we have to take his words and we have to call the clinic to ask the clerk to correct the mistake .

When the patients complain I always tell them, “Your doctor ordered it. I have to do what he/she requests. And you have the right to refuse an exam. Then I explain the benefits of this exam. The perfect patients are always the most cooperative and good images seem to always go hand-in-hand with these types of patients

Why question the high and mighty doctor, when you can yell at a tech. Some department have to write a lengthy history for every exam. If their images are what they consider sub-optimal, they write a disclaimer about patient condition to cover themselves.Top of Form

You put pressure on managers, they’ll put pressure on supervisors, and they in turn (if held countable) will put pressure on techs.

Some hospitals have high standards and good imaging, others don’t. If the rads continue to read and report crap, they’ll continue to see it.

You should be trying to get the perfect image every single time because that’s your job.Health care is no different from any other workplace. If you’re a good person to work with, people will go above and beyond to help you. If not, we’ll do what’s best for the patient.

Someone told me “I’m a patient, and I’ve had things missed, then found on a later report. I’ve had contradictory reports a year apart from the same Radiology department. Reports with no useful information on them whatsoever (a mass found with not even the size indicated. Or Radiologist order TOS test for every shoulder ultrasound without any reason for it just to make money. Or they add renal ultrasound billing in each obstetric exam.

I knew a resident radiologist who was upper nice doctor but one day he snaps when on a demanding rotation, in the middle of dealing with an emergent finding on an outpatient and he couldn’t get in touch with the ordering clinician. And then he had to read my ultrasound to report the finding to the ER doctor. Then the MRI tech called him and says the ED ordered something crazy, can you protocol it. Then he gets a call from a clinician “we’re waiting on your read on the ultrasound report.So he got very mad at the ER doctors due to stress and that is understandable.

Radiologists have to deal failing computer, slow digital imaging, and sitting in a dark room for hours and that can contribute to stress. I’ve had experiences where Radiologists would pick out every little bitty gritty detail even though it might have been your first time meeting them. But for the most part, the other Radiologist’s that I have met are some of the friendliest, most caring and giving people in the world. I would go as far to say that I have met a radiologist that inspired me to model my personality to be more like theirs, happy, stress free, philanthropic and have an eye for details.

In the end of the day it takes a good leadership to manage the anger issue in the department and address the problem and find a solution to resolve them with education, ongoing training and hiring the right staff with the right attitude as we can teach technology but we cannot teach you attitude.

Thank you for reading.