"In my time working as a Rad Tech, I have found that small talk with patients can go a long way to ease their minds and help them understand what we are doing in the imaging room. I recently had a local jail prisoner come in and was accompanied by two deputies. While mild-mannered, the inmate didn't understand the need for an x-ray due to the fact he was having chest pains and was questioning both of the deputies and me as well. I explained to him that the chest x-ray was a great tool to help physicians detect things like an enlarged heart, blocked blood vessels and potential tumors. By simply explaining the purpose of the imaging, he was able to become more at ease for the chest x-rays."

Don't expect your patients to waltz into your lab in great shape. Some may have hearing problems or cognitive issues that impair their ability to understand instruction or explanations. How will you handle those situations? You may have to physically move a person to get them to go where you want them to go. Being able to adapt to every patient and explain things in a way that makes sense to them can be a challenge. Your interviewer will be looking to see how you handle patients with high needs so try to come up with a great example here.

"I am patient and ask questions to check for understanding. I recently had a patient in our department that was elderly and had trouble with both her mobility and her memory. She was having a simple x-ray to see if she had broken her foot in a fall and was experiencing a high amount of pain. In talking with her, it became obvious that she didn't remember the incident. I reviewed her patient notes from the referring physician and I proceeded to talk to her about her injury based on what I read. This seemed to help her in remembering the incident and helped her to understand the importance of the images I was about to perform on her."