MRI offers fastest growing health career

Anna Eager leans over the patient who is laying down on the table.

“We’re going to try and get this done as quickly as we can,” Eager told the patient, who was getting his shoulder scanned. “Try to breath nice and easy, OK.”

Eager prepared the patient for an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging).

Eager is an MRI technologist at Centerpoint Medical Center.

Her colleagues, Michelle Morgan and Alicia Hallmon, work as three-person team inside the MRI imaging room at the hospital.

The three technologist are in a profession expected to be one of the fastest growing in the health care field within the next decade.

Employment of radiologic technologists is expected to increase by about 17 percent from now until 2018. That’s faster than the average for all occupations in the medical field, according to government projections.

The reason: an aging population.

Although 61 percent of technologists work in hospitals, diagnostic imaging centers and physician offices also employ technologists.

The average salary for an MRI technologist in Kansas City is in the mid-$40,000 range.

MRI technologist capture specific images usually ordered by a physician to help patient diagnosis. From lower extremities to upper, the MRI takes detailed shots of the injury for doctors to review.

Safety and security of the patients being scanned are paramount to the technologist, said Morgan, a 10-year MRI technologist.

The reason for the safety is based on the MRI machine itself.

The most important component of the MRI is the magnet, which is  “incredibly powerful,” said Eager.

Metal objects can become dangerous projectiles if they are taken into the scan room. The magnet is so strong that a fully loaded pallet jack has been pulled into the machine paperclip can travel at the “speed of a bullet,” Hallmon said.

So a technologist must ensure outpatients who get scanned must first get waived by a metal detector prior to going into the scanner.

Technologists asks the patient a series of 18 questions.

“Like if they have a pacemaker, they can’t get scanned because the magnet will hurt the pacemaker. Or if they have a shrapnel injury,” Hallmon said.

Morgan said “every patient is different” and the job requires interaction with the person to ensure the images come out clear and the patient is safe.

The average scan is between 30 to 45 minutes, capturing as many as 500 images. But those numbers vary.

The three technologist average about 20 patients a day during their shift. But last Friday, they scanned 26.

The interaction with patients doesn’t stop at the questionnaire. Technologists must have comforting words and a dose of patience.

Patients sometimes become frightened when entering the closed-off machine. Claustrophobic can set in. Some patients are sedated with medication and are asleep during the procedure. Others are not.

“We tell them that an MRI is not supposed to hurt. That seems to ease their fear,” Hallmon said. “We want the patient to be comfortable, too.”

In the control room, the technologist monitors what pictures are being taken, viewing real time images of the scanned body part. There is an intercom system that allows the technologist to talk with the patient or vice versa.

The job entails some aspects of nursing. They occasionally give I.V’s, take blood pressure, and administers oxygen.

A technologist must be trained. There are two and four year training programs. Then you must pass a state test to become a board licensed technologist.

Technologist must take a series of continuing education courses to stay updated.

Hallmon advises people thinking about being in this profession should shadow a technologist.

Eager, Morgan and Hallmon all like being a part of the healing process.

“I love my job,” Hallmon said. “I love the patient interaction. I like knowing that I’m a part of one stage in the healing process.”