Patient positioning is one of the most important things that separates a good technologist from a bad technologist. It is inevitable that a radiology technologist will get a patient that is unable to preform the different positions perfectly; however, it is our duty to ensure that the best positions possible are taken. This is important because different positions will make certain structures look different. For example, when taking an image of the hand, if the patient is unable to fully extend their fingers, then the joint spaces between the phalanx will not be open. These joint spaces are what the radiologist uses to determine if something is dislodged or broken. Another example with the hand is if you are not aligning the patient’s hand in the correct position, then you can make an image look like the patient has nothing wrong with their hand when in fact, it is just hidden because of poor positioning. This is one of the most dangerous things in radiology because a poor positioning could hide something that could be crucial to the radiologist’s diagnosis.
X-ray X-pert 