Advanced Patient Care

Course Description

Advanced Patient Care equips students with advanced skills and knowledge necessary for providing high-quality patient care in the evolving field of medical imaging. The programme emphasises competencies in patient education, assessment, and communication, and students develop proficiency in pre-procedural and post-procedural care management, along with proper charting and documentation practices appropriate to medical imaging professionals.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, RTE is the Radiography prefix. Daytona State publishes this at 3 credits, giving approximately 45 contact hours at the prefix's didactic convention. ⚠ The catalog does not state prerequisites or terms of offering — confirm with the programme.

The patient care half of imaging is what distinguishes a technologist from an equipment operator, and it becomes more rather than less important as procedures grow more complex. A patient arriving for a contrast-enhanced study or an interventional procedure needs assessment, preparation, monitoring, and aftercare — and the technologist is frequently the only clinician continuously present.

Daytona State does not publish a lecture and laboratory split for its RTE courses. The prefix runs at several conventions: C-suffixed courses at approximately 20 contact hours per credit (RTE1111C, RTE1457C, RTE1503C, RTE1513C and RTE1523C), L-suffixed laboratories at 32 (RTE1111L, RTE1503L and RTE1513L all at 1 credit and 32 hours), clinical education far higher (RTE1804L at 1 credit and 128 hours), and unsuffixed didactic courses at approximately 15 to 16 (RTE1001 at 1 credit and 16 hours). This course is unsuffixed and didactic, and is priced at that convention.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Perform a patient assessment appropriate to an imaging procedure.
• Obtain and evaluate a relevant clinical history.
• Measure and interpret vital signs.
• Recognise the deteriorating patient and escalate appropriately.
• Verify patient identity and procedure using accepted practice.
• Confirm informed consent is in place where required.
• Educate a patient about a procedure in plain language.
• Apply teach-back to confirm understanding.
• Manage pre-procedural preparation, including fasting and medication considerations.
• Screen for contraindications, including renal function and allergy where relevant.
• Establish pregnancy status following departmental protocol.
• Describe contrast media, their types, and their risks.
• Recognise contrast reactions and describe the required response.
• Describe emergency equipment and medications and their location.
• Monitor a patient during a procedure.
• Provide post-procedural care and discharge instructions.
• Apply infection control and aseptic technique appropriately.
• Assist with sterile procedures and maintain the sterile field.
• Transfer and position patients safely, including those with limited mobility.
• Care for patients with tubes, lines, and drains.
• Adapt care for paediatric, older, bariatric, and cognitively impaired patients.
• Communicate with distressed, anxious, or uncooperative patients.
• Chart and document care accurately and completely.
• Apply patient confidentiality and privacy requirements.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe venipuncture and intravenous access.
• Describe moderate sedation monitoring.
• Describe trauma and emergency imaging considerations.
• Describe care in interventional procedures.
• Describe cultural competence in patient care.
• Describe patient experience measurement and improvement.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Patient assessment for imaging
• Clinical history
• Vital signs
• Recognising deterioration
• Identity and procedure verification
• Informed consent
• Patient education
• Teach-back
• Pre-procedural preparation
• Screening for contraindications
• Pregnancy status
• Contrast media and risks
• Contrast reactions and response
• Emergency equipment and medications
• Intra-procedural monitoring
• Post-procedural care and discharge
• Infection control and asepsis
• Sterile technique
• Safe transfer and positioning
• Tubes, lines, and drains
• Adapting for special populations
• Communicating with distressed patients
• Charting and documentation
• Confidentiality and privacy

Optional Topics

• Venipuncture and intravenous access
• Moderate sedation monitoring
• Trauma and emergency imaging
• Interventional procedure care
• Cultural competence
• Patient experience improvement

Resources & Tools

• ARRT (arrt.org) — free content specifications, eligibility rules, and the ethics review process. Read the eligibility requirements before enrolling anywhere.
• JRCERT (jrcert.org) — free accreditation lookup and programme effectiveness data.
• ASRT (asrt.org) — the American Society of Radiologic Technologists; practice standards, continuing education, and student membership.
• Florida Department of Health — radiologic technology certification — free; the authority on Florida requirements and categories.
• Radiologic Science for Technologists (Bushong) — the standard physics, biology, and protection text.
• Merrill's Atlas of Radiographic Positioning — the positioning standard.
• Image Gently and Image Wisely — free dose-optimisation campaigns for paediatric and adult imaging respectively.
• Your clinical preceptors and the department's protocols — the most valuable resource in the programme.

Career Pathways

• Radiologic technologist — SOC 29-2034.
• Hospital diagnostic radiography — the largest employment setting.
• Outpatient imaging centres and physician practices — frequently better hours.
• Computed tomography — a post-primary certification and one of the most common advancements.
• Magnetic resonance imaging — a post-primary certification with its own distinctive safety regime.
• Mammography — a post-primary certification with specific federal regulatory requirements.
• Interventional and cardiovascular radiography — higher acuity and higher pay.
• Surgical and mobile radiography.
• Radiation therapy and nuclear medicine — related professions with their own certifications.
• Applications specialist and equipment support — manufacturers recruit experienced technologists.
• PACS and imaging informatics administration — a growing, well-paid pathway from the technologist role.
• Clinical education, programme instruction, and imaging management — with additional qualifications.

Special Information

⚠⚠ Contrast reactions — know the response before you need it

• Contrast media are drugs and they cause reactions, ranging from mild and self-limiting to life-threatening anaphylaxis. Severe reactions are rare and they happen fast.
• Screen before administration — previous reaction, relevant allergy history, renal function where the agent requires it, and any departmental protocol for premedication.
• Know where the emergency equipment and medication are in every room you work in, and check they are present and in date. Finding out during an event is too late.
• Recognise the progression. Mild reactions — nausea, flushing, limited urticaria — are usually self-limiting; respiratory difficulty, widespread urticaria, hypotension, or altered consciousness are an emergency.
• Do not leave the patient, call for help, and follow the protocol.
• Watch after the injection. Most reactions occur within the first minutes, which is precisely when the patient is often left alone to be repositioned or scanned.
• Extravasation is a distinct problem with its own management, and it is more likely with power injection and fragile veins.
• Document the agent, dose, route, time, and any reaction completely.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies — contrast protocols, screening criteria, and premedication regimes vary by institution and change; follow current departmental policy.

⚠ The technologist is frequently the only clinician continuously with the patient

• That position carries real responsibility. In many imaging encounters nobody else observes the patient continuously, so noticing deterioration is your job by default.
• Look at the patient, not only the image. Colour, breathing, level of consciousness, and distress are all visible and all easy to miss when concentrating on positioning.
• Take a proper history. The request form is frequently incomplete or wrong, and the patient will tell you things nobody wrote down — including that they are pregnant, or that they reacted to contrast before.
• Verify identity and procedure every time, using two identifiers. Wrong-patient and wrong-side imaging happen, and they are preventable.
• Question an inappropriate request. An examination that is not justified delivers dose for no benefit, and technologists are professionally entitled — and expected — to raise it.
• Explain what is happening. Most patient distress in imaging is uncertainty, and a sentence of explanation prevents most of it.
• Handle patients carefully. Many are in pain, frightened, or recently injured, and positioning is uncomfortable.
• Escalate early rather than late. Nobody has been criticised for calling for help too soon.

⚠⚠ Radiation protection — the obligation that defines this profession

• Ionising radiation causes harm that is cumulative and, for some effects, has no threshold below which risk is zero. That is the premise the whole protection framework rests on.
• ALARA — as low as reasonably achievable — is the governing principle, and it applies to the patient, to you, and to everyone else in the room.
• Time, distance, and shielding are the three controls. Distance is the most powerful, because dose falls with the square of distance — stepping back is more effective than most people assume.
• ⚠ The single most effective patient dose reduction is not repeating the examination. A repeat doubles the dose, and repeats are usually caused by positioning or technique errors — which makes technical competence a radiation protection measure.
• Collimate to the area of interest. It reduces patient dose and scatter and it improves image quality — there is no trade-off.
• Use appropriate technique factors and understand the dose consequences of the ones you select.
• Shield where shielding is indicated by current practice, and know that guidance on patient shielding has changed in recent years.
• ⚠ Establish pregnancy status before imaging where it is relevant, following your department's protocol. This is a required step, not a courtesy.
• Wear and correctly position your dosimeter, every shift, and never share or leave it in a radiation area.
• Never hold a patient during an exposure if any alternative exists; use immobilisation, and if a person must hold, it should not be a person occupationally exposed.
• Justification comes first. An examination that is not clinically justified delivers dose for no benefit, and technologists can and should question an inappropriate request.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies — dose limits, shielding guidance, and regulatory requirements change; follow current regulation and departmental protocol.

⚠⚠ Certification and licensure in radiography — verify before you enrol

• The recognised credential is ARRT certification and registration, awarded by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists. It is what employers require and what most state licensure is built on.
• ⚠⚠ Eligibility generally requires completion of an ARRT-recognised educational programme, and radiography programmes are typically accredited by JRCERT. Confirm a programme's accreditation and ARRT recognition before enrolling — the same unrecoverable trap recorded here for CAPTE, CAAHEP, ACOTE, and CoARC.
• Florida licenses radiologic technologists through the Department of Health, and practising without the required licence is an offence. Florida issues several categories of radiologic technology certification with differing scopes.
• Post-primary certifications extend scope — computed tomography, magnetic resonance, mammography, interventional, and others — and they are the principal route to higher pay in this field.
• ARRT requires continuing education and adherence to its ethics requirements for continued registration, and it takes the ethics provisions seriously.
• Background screening and health clearance are required for clinical placement and for licensure. ARRT applies an ethics review to applicants with criminal history — and its pre-application review process exists precisely so this can be established early. Use it before investing in the programme.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies. Verify with the ARRT, JRCERT, and the Florida Department of Health rather than relying on this guide.

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 — and it is live here, since Daytona State offers both associate-level and bachelor of applied science coursework in this prefix.

RTE3116 is 3 credits and approximately 45 contact hours at Daytona State. ⚠ The catalog does not state prerequisites or terms of offering — confirm with the programme.