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[B. Long] Hello, this is Bruce Long, director of the IU Radiologic Sciences Programs. We have three programs to offer you: we have an associate degree in radiography; we have bachelor\'s degrees in both nuclear medicine technology and in medical imaging technology.

[Gabrielle] I\'ve always been interested in medicine, and when I started school years ago, I also liked journalism. So I found one profession that fit me both that I could do pictures and medicine so I decided to take pictures of bones. Something I\'ve always liked.

[Evan] I went to St. Francis, a hospital in the area, and asked if I could shadow. They told me, \"Yes. This is a pretty common occurrence for people who want to get into the program.\" So, I shadowed, and liked what I did. I then proceeded to get a job at St. Francis in the X-ray Department, which gave me a lot of background and experience just sort of in the field to see what kind of things the techs do on a daily basis.

[Mark] I got into all the technology of the x-rays and how it\'s just growing and growing and that field excited me, and after I got into it, I\'ve had to learn that... I\'ve been told it\'s more of an art than a science. It\'s where art meets science.

[B. Long] As far as the profession itself goes, for those of you who would be deciding whether you wanted to go into a profession like radiography, you need to recognize that we are a direct patient care profession. Even though nurses primarily are responsible for patient care, whenever a patient is having an imaging study done, then we are responsible for the patient\'s care during that time, so you still have to want to take care directly of a patient in order to be able to work in the area.

[Gabrielle] It\'s important that you are very understanding. I think you need to have a thick skin because a lot of people are sick and they can be mean, and you have to realize that they are only being mean because they are not feeling well.

[Evan] I think one of the hardest things to deal with after getting into the program is seeing just how sick some of the patients are. Most of the time and in my experience as well, when you shadow, you do a lot of the outpatient things which is kids who\'ve broken their legs playing sports, basic people who just walk in off of the street. However in the clinical settings, you do get a lot of sick people, and that can be hard to deal with.

[B. Long] Any of the diagnostic imaging modality areas have very good job outlooks right now. We have is a national benchmark 75 per cent of our students should have a job working in the field within six months of graduation. We always exceed that every year. It is the closest to a guaranteed job you can get, even though no one can ever obviously guarantee that.