Raise That Crossbar

by A. W. Bradison, RT, First Vice President, CSXT

One of the primary purposes of our X-Ray Societies is to raise the standards of our work. Actually raising the standards rests in the hands of each individual technician. It is your individual desire and your individual efforts to improve your own work that eventually improves the technical standards of our organization as a whole.

How High Are Your X-Ray Technical Standards

X-Ray Technical Standards are like high jumping. The crossbar of your standard can be placed at a low level where it can be cleared on every attempt; there is little satisfaction in that. Or it can be placed at a much higher level where it can't always be cleared. Many, many times it is that extra thought, that extra supplementary view that brings the results you want, If you fail, at least you know within yourself you tried. The patient deserves that, the radiologist expects it, and you should need it for your own personal satisfaction of knowing you are doing your best and trying to improve the quality of your work.

Raising the crossbar of standards does a lot for you. Indirectly it teaches you to take suggestions and criticisms gracefully. Of all the critics of your work, be the most severe critic yourself.

Be the first to criticze your own work and the last one to praise it, and you will be a highly respected technician.

First appeared in the October, 1957 Technigram