Radiography (RT) training challenges and solutions

Earlier in my career, one of my roles was teaching radiography and preparing personnel to become radiographic examiners. I experienced many challenges, from difficult students to difficult concepts to demonstrate with the available resources. For example, while students needed to learn how to set up a shot, write a proper technique sheet and interpret radiographs, I was not able to provide hands-on access to X-ray machines or gamma-ray cameras. When trying to help students visualize concepts such as the effect of different source sizes, source to object distance, object to detector distance, geometric distortion and geometric enlargement, I relied on flashlights with different size beams to represent sources of different sizes, and shadows on the wall to demonstrate concepts like geometric enlargement and distortion. Not exactly high tech, but I was doing the best I could with the resources available to me.

Fast forward to today, I work for a company that saw the need for better tools and developed them in TraiNDE RT, a training simulator for radiography. With both VR and PC options, it immerses the student in a realistic and interactive environment free of radiation and radiation safety concerns. New images appear in just seconds for exposure times in minutes, and there is no conflict with equipment used for production or in-service radiography. Other benefits include training tools such as the ability to turn the radiographic emission cone on or off and obtaining automatic feedback on performance (if the instructor has not locked out these features).

With TraiNDE RT, students can increase the number of exercises they complete, and the feedback received in the same amount of time, helping to safely train more people quicker.

Instructors can share their screen to walk students through the steps of setting up a good shot. Next, they would enter the virtual X-ray room to finish the setup. Once all this looks good, just like in the real world, they would leave the X-ray room and close the shielded door before pushing the button (or cranking out the source).

With multiple training simulators in the classroom, another advance is that the instructor can walk students through a “hands-on” exercise while both they and their students simultaneously go through the same steps while utilizing the same part. This sure beats the old days of making shadow puppets on the wall!

With an inspection method like RT, where the equipment is large, and radiation safety steps must be taken, it is a huge advance to be able to practice on a computer-based system that fits in a backpack and can safely be used anywhere.

For those students or educators of remote training, there are new remote access options that provide a way for students to gain practical experience from anywhere with an internet connection.

To all the radiography instructors reading this blog, I encourage you to try TraiNDE RT at a tradeshow or set up a web demo to see it, and make your own assessment on how it can revolutionize your RT training program.

Erica Schumacher
EXTENDE Inc.