Dear AuntMinnie Member,
It's no secret that radiologic technologists in the U.S. are under tremendous stress. Ask many RTs about their job situation, and they'll say they're overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated.
Dear AuntMinnie Member,
It's no secret that radiologic technologists in the U.S. are under tremendous stress. Ask many RTs about their job situation, and they'll say they're overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated.
But no one expected what happened at San Francisco General Hospital this week, after RTs staged a sickout to protest work conditions. City officials responded to the sickout with threats of disciplinary action rather than addressing the RTs' concerns as they had hoped. Hours later, one of the RTs, a 20-year veteran of the hospital, had committed suicide.
The case is still under investigation, and it's still not known whether the suicide was related to the labor unrest. But the incident highlights in microcosm how serious the RT labor crisis has become. While some details of the situation are peculiar to San Francisco, this is, at its core, a story that could be repeated at hundreds of hospitals across the U.S.
You'll find the details in an article by staff writer Tracie L. Thompson in our Imaging Center Digital Community. After you've read the story, visit our Technologists' Issues Discussion Group, where an impassioned debate is underway on whether the RTs were right in using a sickout to highlight their concerns.
