Missing ImageImagine this… You arrive at work and start your day off as normal, you notice that everything is going pretty well. While you are taking portable exams, you are asked to do a routine portable chest x-ray of the patient in room 745. You immediately go to that patient's room, with no known name or date of birth of that particular patient. While you speak with the patient and take a brief history, you begin the examination. After finishing, you return to the ward where another technologist tells you that he accidentally gave you the wrong patient room number. No doubt, you ignore the incident and erase the images on the imaging plate, then move on to the correct patient room number and complete the images for the original x-ray order. As a radiologic technologist, one of the most important things to consider when dealing with ionizing radiation is reducing the dose given to the patient. Repetitions are the main cause of patient dose, and unnecessary radiation to a patient is also another. In the example above, the radiology technologist did not verify the room number with the other technologist who provided the information. This led to the patient being exposed to unnecessary radiation. Several ethical codes and rules were ignored in this scenario. According to the ARRT ethical standards, “the code of ethics is ambitious” (American Registry of Radiologic Technologists, 2014, p. 1). This simply means that technologists are improving to become even better than before. The previous scenario includes ethics codes 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Ethics code 1 describes the technologist acting in a professional manner and responsive to the patient's needs. In this scenario, not only did the technologist not verify the name and date of birth, but he or ...... middle of paper ...... gave the room number. The technologist who took the image should have known the patient's name and date of birth instead of ignoring them. In healthcare, many patients come and go. Radiology technologists are trained in the harmful effects of radiation; It is therefore important for them to reduce the dose administered to the patient as much as possible through communication. Lead shields are provided by the hospital and used by technologists, but a technologist must be aware of the need to reduce the dose to the patient through step-by-step processes. As healthcare professionals, it is our obligation to verify the name and date of birth of each patient, this simple step will reduce the number of unnecessary radiation exposures. Works Cited American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (2012.) Retrieved from https://www.arrt.org/pdfs/Government-Documents/Standards-of-Ethics.pdf