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Patient Care in Radiography Laboratory

RTE1111L — RTE1111L
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1 credit hours 32 contact hours Prerequisites: Corequisite RTE1111 (Patient Care in Radiography) and admission to an accredited radiography program. This is the laboratory half of a paired lecture-and-lab course and is not taken independently. At institutions that instead offer the integrated RTE1111C, the separate lab does not exist. v1.0

Course Description

Patient Care in Radiography Laboratory is the hands-on half of the radiography patient-care course. Where the lecture develops the knowledge base — patient assessment, professional ethics, human diversity, body mechanics, medical-legal considerations, radiation safety, the radiographer's history and responsibilities, routine and emergency procedures, infection control under standard precautions, and introductory pharmacology and venipuncture — the laboratory is where students actually perform those skills on each other and on simulation equipment before they touch a patient in clinic.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, RTE is the Radiologic Technology prefix, and the L suffix denotes a laboratory-only course. RTE1111L is 1 credit and 32 contact hours, all laboratory, taken as a corequisite with RTE1111. Daytona State offers it in summer with a lab fee; the pairing appears at approximately five Florida institutions.

This is a small course by credit and a large one by consequence. Radiography students are placed in hospitals early, and the skills rehearsed here — transferring a patient who cannot bear weight, recognizing a deteriorating patient, maintaining sterile technique, starting an IV for contrast — are the ones on which patient safety in the first clinical rotation depends.

⚠ Three variants of this course exist in Florida — check which one you have

The patient-care requirement is packaged three different ways, and the numbers are not interchangeable:

SCNS equivalency does not cross numbers, and the suffix is part of the number. A student who completed RTE1111C has satisfied both halves; a student who completed only RTE1111 has not completed the lab. Have any transfer evaluated in writing rather than assuming a title match is sufficient.

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Special Information

⚠ Florida licenses radiologic technologists — and this is a fact students routinely miss

Unlike sonographers, radiologic technologists in Florida are state-licensed. Practice is governed by Chapter 468, Part IV, Florida Statutes and Rule Chapter 64E-3, F.A.C., administered by the Florida Department of Health. A general radiographer certificate requires completion of an approved program and passage of the examination; Florida recognizes ARRT certification for this purpose.

Two practical points. First, Florida issues several distinct certificate categories — general radiographer, limited scope, nuclear medicine, radiation therapy, and specialty — and the limited-scope categories authorize far narrower practice than a general radiographer certificate; do not confuse them when comparing programs. Second, licensure is separate from ARRT certification and must be maintained separately, with its own renewal and continuing education. Requirements are amended periodically; verify current rules with the Florida Department of Health rather than relying on a textbook or on this guide.

⚠ The lab is where safe transfers are learned, and unsafe transfers injure both people

Patient handling is the most common source of injury to imaging staff and one of the more common sources of preventable injury to patients in the department. Two habits taught in this laboratory carry a whole career:

⚠ Venipuncture and contrast: know the reaction you are most likely to see and the one that will kill

Contrast reactions are a genuine part of radiographic practice. The distinction students most need is between a physiologic reaction — warmth, flushing, metallic taste, mild nausea — which is common, expected, and not an allergy, and a true hypersensitivity reaction, which ranges from urticaria to anaphylaxis. Recognizing the difference determines whether the exam continues or the emergency response is activated.

Two facts worth carrying: a documented "iodine allergy" is not a contraindication in the way patients believe — shellfish allergy in particular is not a predictor of contrast reaction, though a prior reaction to contrast is — and renal function and certain medications matter for iodinated contrast. The ACR Manual on Contrast Media is the free, authoritative reference, and it is worth reading beyond what the course assigns.

Course format, health requirements, and position in the program

RTE1111L is a laboratory course: essentially all 32 contact hours are hands-on, graded by performance check-off rather than by written examination. Skills are demonstrated and scored against a checklist, and a failed check-off is repeated until it passes — the standard is competence, not an average.

It is taken as a corequisite with RTE1111 early in the program, immediately before or alongside the first clinical rotation. Because clinical placement follows quickly, students must complete Level 2 background screening under § 435.04 and § 456.0635, Florida Statutes, immunization and TB documentation, drug screening, and BLS certification. Start these early — clearance timelines are controlled by the district and the clinical site, not by the college, and certain offenses affect Florida licensure eligibility as well as placement. Any student with a criminal history should raise it with the program director before enrolling rather than after.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement — which matters a great deal in radiography, because several Florida institutions now offer a B.S. completion track with 3000- and 4000-level RTE courses that associate-level coursework cannot substitute for.

One caveat overrides all of it in practice: radiography programs are JRCERT-accredited, lock-step cohorts with sequenced clinical placements, and they accept transfer into the professional sequence rarely and case by case. Expect to repeat coursework when moving between programs, and get any transfer evaluation in writing first.

Generated September 2, 2026 · Updated September 2, 2026