Good Radiologic Technologist Bad Rad Tech Student
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Hey everybody, this is Tina again with Good Nurse, Bad Nurse. Welcome back to another episode of this podcast.

We like to take stories from the news and use them to discuss issues in healthcare. A lot of times nursing issues, but not always because while I'm a nurse and most of the time my co-hosts are nurses, there are so many other healthcare professionals who are such an important part of the healthcare team and overall outcome of the patient. So we're going to be discussing radiological technologists today, both good and bad. Rad techs as well.

I think a lot of people refer to them affectionately or maybe not so affectionately. What I want to do, though, we're going to be talking, of course, we've got a bad nurse story that is about, it's actually about a student. So they, not quite a rad tech, but...

aspiring to be so close enough. It allows me to get into the good nurse segment where we're going to definitely talk about a good radiologic technologist, actually also a student as well, but one who is graduating and doing very well. And it's going to give us an opportunity when we get into that segment to really talk a little bit about some of the controversial aspects, maybe some of the contention between the different professions. We're going to just

Just chit-chat about that stuff and hopefully bridge some gaps between these professions. But first, before we do, I have to introduce my co-host for this episode, Karen Weidlich, another fellow nurse. She's been on, actually, she's been on the podcast before. So this is actually a return. She's a return guest. Yes.

And so happy to have her. She's otherwise known as Wound Care Karen. Welcome back, Karen. Oh, thank you so much for having me back. Yes, I was last on in October of 2023, and a lot's happened since then. So it's so nice to be back with you, Tina. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Always glad to have you back. I love having my...

favorite return, you know, people to come back that I enjoyed, and I definitely enjoyed our conversation last time. I feel like we kind of think along the same lines when it comes to nursing and patient care. So I know I learned a tremendous amount from you about wound care, all things wound care. It's just a fascinating topic for me.

And so I'm really excited to get to talk about this story today. It's definitely a sad story. So might as well get started. This is the story, actually, just to tell you about the victim, Christina Tournai Sandoval, also known by her family as Tina.

was one of nine children. She was in nursing school when she first met John Sandoval at a local college in the early 1990s. At the time, John was taking classes to become a radiological technologist. They got married in 1992. At their wedding, he was quoted as saying Tina was, quote, the best woman a man could ever ask for. So by 1995, their marriage was not doing well.

John never became a radiologic technologist, and he actually struggled to even hold down a job. And we're going to find out why when we get into this story. Karen, it's pretty bad. I mean, it's kind of one of those stories where we're just like, oh. So she confessed, Tina confessed to friends and family members that she had discovered that John had a very dark secret. He was a prolific peeping Tom guy.

So she told her sister, Susan, that sometimes John would get up in the middle of the night, leave their bed, and then go through, crawl through his victims' backyards, peer into their windows, and sometimes even bring home women's underwear as trophies. Which, in order to do that, he wasn't just peeping in their windows. Right, he was breaking into homes, apparently, and underwear drawers. This is so unsettling, right?

This is every woman's nightmare, right? I mean, you're just lying in bed. Maybe you didn't close the drapes the whole way. And there's someone watching you as you sleep. Yeah, exactly. And it's something that I've learned from watching so many true crime stories. And I do think that probably one of the reasons that I am drawn to true crime and

enjoy watching these stories, it's because you do, you learn things, you learn, you know, how to possibly, you know, not become a victim, hopefully, or at least to decrease your chances of becoming a victim. And one of the things that I've heard police say is closing your blinds at night, because there are people who literally just driving down the road, if they look down, look out, you know, out their car window and can see in your house, it could trigger the

for whatever reason, the idea in their head to try to break into your house. It's, it's, I remember when, when I heard that the first time I've heard it multiple times from different police officers and investigators. But I remember when I heard that thinking, well,

That doesn't even make sense. Why? Why would somebody be just driving down the road? And then just how can, what can they possibly see driving down the road? But people walking down the road, your neighbors, you just, you just don't know. So at night, pro tip,

is to literally close your drapes, close your blinds, because you may not even realize how well people can see through your windows. If your lights are on, it's dark outside, you know.

Yeah. And isn't that unfortunate, you know, especially, you know, if it's a cool evening and you might like to leave your window open for a breeze or something, but it's just, you know, humans can be really horrible sometimes. And that's, well, that's why we can't have nice things. I mean, this is just, we have to.

We have to be protect ourselves all the time. Constantly. And I know, you know, and a lot of people, a lot of the kids like my younger kids age, they kind of don't think this way. And I try to think back to when I was their age. I was like, did I think that way? Maybe I didn't. I probably didn't. I probably didn't. It probably did not occur to me. Although I do remember like being very conscientious walking from my car to my apartment when I was single. And

you know, locking my door. So yeah, I can't, no, I don't get it. I don't get it because it's,

I have friends, you know, working at the bedside hospital. You make friends, you make these weird friendships with people that are like 20 years younger than you. And I'm just like, what are you talking about? You can't be going walking your dog in the, like, just wherever you want to up and down the street in the middle of the night. They don't, they're just like, I don't, you know, I'm not afraid. I don't care. I'm not going to allow, you know, some potential thing that could happen to me to,

Limit, yeah. The way I live, yeah. Yeah, I didn't think of that stuff when I was little either, but when I was 15, my brothers told me that a neighbor, I don't know why he confessed to them, but he told them that he was watching me through the bathroom window. Oh my goodness, that's crazy. And this was a second story bathroom window, and he told them how he would stand on our swing set...

At the time, so that he could watch me in the bathroom window. So you better believe from the age of 15 on, I knew to close my blinds and drapes. But a second story window, like, and it was like a higher window. I'm sorry. It just never even occurred to me. Yeah.

So just to think to have to close my blinds, you know? I mean, I hate to be that person that's just like constantly giving you all this advice. But no, I don't. That's why I have this podcast. What am I saying? Right. If we could save one person from a beeping dom, it's worth it, right? I mean, really, close your blinds. Okay. So...

obviously he was going around looking in windows and that as the, as we've learned from these stories tends to escalate from just peeping through windows to then trying to maybe like try the door knob and see if it's unlocked is the wind. Can I open this window? If I can open the window, can I, you know, so obviously he's taking home women's underwears trophies. He, he actually, that does did actually escalate into him going into the home.

In another conversation with a friend in nursing, Tina said it wasn't unusual for John to follow a woman home from the store and then spy on her for days. This kind of story doesn't make you paranoid. I don't know what will. People are going to be watching in their rearview mirror constantly to see, wait a minute, is that person following me? It saddens me to think that she knew this of her husband. Yeah.

How did she find out? You know, did she catch him doing it? And it saddens me. I think she was probably still a young age. I think she was still early 20s here.

So I'm not sure if she recognized enough. I don't know. I mean, they eventually did break up, but I just, my heart just goes out to her. Yeah, and she did decide to, you know, leave the relationship. She moved into her own apartment. The thing is, I think that she probably, once she did discover he was doing these things, that's when she had an exit plan and she got away, you know, however long that took.

So he rented a house, but it seemed like she didn't quite leave his mind. He was she was kind of always there in the back of his mind. She reported seeing him parked outside her apartment complex for hours. So now she has become the object of, you know, the somebody that he's going to want to peep through the windows on and watch her and stalk her or whatever.

And that's really creepy because he would really know her habits and her workplace. And, you know, he would know her intimately. So that's really scary. Her sister Susan said he even had jumped onto the deck of her apartment from the staircase that led up to her front door and was watching her in there and told her everything that he saw.

So just, I mean, if you're doing that, you're not just trying to watch someone, you're literally trying to torment them because why else would you be saying this? I can see everything you're doing. Look what I can do. Yes. You had that red top on the other night that I don't like. Yeah. That's so creepy. It's just all about power. It's about having power over another person, trying to make them afraid of you. Yes. And control. Yes. Oh, that's scary. Yeah.

Well, despite these unnerving encounters, she at the time was about 23 years old, was looking forward to starting her new life. She started talking to some new men and going out with her fellow nurses, but she did have to finalize the end of her marriage. So after finishing an overnight shift at the hospital in October of 1995, she told her fellow co-workers and her sister Susan that she was going to

plan to meet John after work and that they were going to have this big conversation. And she was hoping that she could finally bring her divorce to a close. So Susan asked Tina to call her around noon that day after the meeting was over, but she never called.

So concerned, of course, Susan asked her mother to drive by John's home. Tina's mother knocked on the door and talked to John's aunt who was subletting the home's basement. The aunt told her that she wasn't sure where John and Tina had gone, but just before she left, Tina's mother noticed her daughter's brand new coat had mysteriously been left behind. So...

Now that they're unable to reach her, Susan and her mother went to the local police station to report her missing that afternoon and spoke to several detectives who were already very familiar with John's past. Of course, after, you know, the peeping Tom incidents, John had a string of prior arrests and convictions for harassment and burglary and was known around the department as the usual suspect when it came to peeping Tom complaints. So yeah, you can imagine this area. Somebody calls the police and says,

I am sure somebody was watching me through my window. I don't know who it is, but I just, I know someone was, I saw them. I couldn't tell. They're going to go right for him, right? They're going to be like, well...

The usual suspect. Yeah. Yes, he already had a reputation. Ugh. Well, investigators sent a plainclothes police officer to sit outside of John's house and wait till he came home. The officer radioed detectives at 4.45 a.m. the next morning when John finally arrived back home. So the detectives quickly jumped in their car and arrived a few minutes later to find John was already in the shower, presumably washing away any evidence that

that may have remained. So they did find a wet shovel, a pail, rope, carpenter's level, and flashlight attached to a lanyard in John's car and several of Tina's credit cards inside his home. He was taken into custody in connection with a trespassing charge in another case

But he denied having anything to do with his wife's disappearance and lawyered up right away. So investigators believed John was possibly trying to get rid of evidence that could link him to the case after seeing him bite off his fingernails.

while waiting in the interrogation room. That's crazy. I really wish like they had stopped him, you know, and swabbed the last few or whatever, because you know darn well her skin was under those fingernails, for sure. Yeah, otherwise, you know, why would he be doing that? I mean, maybe, there are actually a lot of people that bite their fingernails out of just a nervous habit, but I've never, it's something I've just never done, and I, I

And especially after becoming a nurse, there's no way I could even allow myself to do that. There's just no way. As much as I wash my hands, I still feel like it's so gross. Like you're just constantly touching something. So no, there's no way I would do that. But there are people that do that. So I mean, it could just be some, you know, just out of nervousness.

Especially if he was guilty, he would be nervous. But they're looking at it more like, you know, I just wonder, was it very specific? Was it obvious that he was literally trying to get every single fingernail? If he was just biting them and spitting them in the corner, that's different. But if he was...

It made it sound like they believed he was trying to hide evidence. He was probably hiding evidence. You know, I really, again, hindsight's 20-20, but I really wish they could have stopped him. I know. Yeah. Hey, Nurse Practitioners, are you looking for a supportive and accessible collaborating physician? You might remember Dr. Annie. She was featured in the Good Nurse segment in the episode that was released on May 29th. And she also helped me co-host that episode. She actually started the company Collaborating Docs. So the way it works...

is they match you with an experienced collaborating physician that's tailored to your needs. They handle all the legal agreements to ensure a compliant match so you don't have to worry about the paperwork. They also cover the collaborating physician's malpractice insurance, giving you peace of mind. So if you're ready to simplify your practice, sign up for a free quote with one of their NP onboarding specialists today. Use the code GOODNURSE to get $250 off your onboarding fee. Visit collaboratingdocs.com to get started. That's collaboratingdocs.com.

Well, they didn't have a body. They didn't have a crime scene. They obviously didn't have a confession. So the district attorney didn't feel there was enough evidence to arrest him for the crime. So he pleaded guilty to the trespassing charge against him and he was sentenced to six years in prison. But he was released after serving just over four years and he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada.

So the years that followed after this, Tina's family, you know, of course, they were just in anguish, as you can imagine. The detectives continued searching through fields, ditches and open areas for her body, but they were not able to find her. Then in 2009, there was a new district attorney that agreed to take on the case and an arrest warrant was issued for him.

So inside his Las Vegas home, investigators made a chilling discovery. John had two portraits of Tina wearing a tiny black dress hanging prominently on the wall. I cannot imagine how creepy that must have been for these investigators to go to arrest him, knowing what he was accused of, knowing what they were doing.

probably pretty sure that he did. They just couldn't prove it to see that on the wall. Right. But imagine how he felt. He was on top of the world. He literally got away with murder, served, you know, barely four years, but that was for a peeping Tom charge. So in his mind, he literally got away with murder and that's his trophies there on the wall. You know, it's, he's sick. He's really sick.

So Detective Mike Prill also reported finding more than 100 VHS tapes and 70 mini VHS tapes of John filming women along the Las Vegas Strip. So there was one video in particular that the detective said alleged that John followed a woman into her room, went inside after she failed to lock the door. And that's another thing, guys, you should make sure you lock your doors, even during the day, lock your doors. There

There are people who literally will just walk up to your house. I don't care how nice your neighborhood is. They will literally walk up to your house or your apartment, wherever you live, and

and try to open your door. And if they don't, if they get resistance, if it's locked, they'll just go to another house. But if it's unlocked, you know, they may just walk on in there. You know, maybe they don't think you're home. And, you know, if you're just taking a nap or something, my goodness, lock your doors, guys. So he,

He followed this person into her room after she didn't lock her door. And then inside, as four women slept, he filmed the women for 17 minutes before slowly removing the sheets from one woman and allegedly sexually assaulting her, according to this investigator. That's so disturbing. So here's...

Four women on vacation in Vegas. You're excited. You know, you get to dress up. You go to clubs. You come back. And there you are just, you know, trying to sleep off what you can and have more fun the next day. And this creep gets into your hotel room.

And is recording you and now touching you. This is, oh my gosh. It's beyond disturbing. And in that particular case, he was never charged for any of those activities in Vegas, which is kind of surprising considering if he had the videotapes, but yeah.

If they were just videos of people walking down the street, that probably, you know, like on the strip, that would probably be really difficult to prove intention or it's not illegal to just video people out in public. So if he didn't actually video anything else that was illegal, then I guess. Yeah, but I really think, you know, by going into the room and touching a woman, I mean, that just surely that takes it up.

To a felony even. I mean, that's more than a misdemeanor. That's just, I can't believe he was never charged for that. I really can't either because in order for us to even know what happened, you would think that that woman must have said something. They must have reported it.

So for whatever reason, they didn't move forward with it, which is really sad for those women. And that's typically, you know, that's kind of typical really for when women try to report crimes like this. It's, you know, it's kind of unfortunate. But he wasn't charged. So those are alleged crimes, not anything he was convicted of, but he was convicted.

first-degree murder and his wife's death. So they actually were able to get a conviction, but in the spring of 2016, the conviction was overturned because

because some evidence that a judge had allowed prosecutors to present, authorities were all set for another trial when John agreed to lead them to his wife's body in exchange for a plea deal. So they were actually able to take him to court and to a trial. He was convicted, but, you know, sometimes we get really frustrated with some of these stories. I get really frustrated with some of these stories because judges don't allow certain evidence to come in. And I'm just like, well, if they had just known about this...

But this is exactly why judges are careful about what they allow to come in. Because, you know, there are laws that say, you know, certain things could be, you know, particularly prejudicial. And this judge allowed that.

prosecutors to present this evidence, and it caused his conviction to be overturned. Exactly. This is what we mean when we say they got off on a technicality, because that's literally what happened. And you're right. And the laws are so different. Each state is different. Each jurisdiction is different. County, city. Yeah, that's really, really unfortunate that, again, got off on a technicality. Yeah, so...

Her family agreed to give John a deal in exchange for the information of, you know, where the body of their loved one, you know, could be found, where Tina's body was. That had to have been a very, very difficult decision for them to make. Because I'm sure, of course, everyone wants to know where their loved one, where their body is. Everyone wants their loved one back.

But on the flip side, with the plea deal, you know, you're always wondering, well, what if he gets out early on good time? You know, is he going to, you know, are there going to be more victims in the future? Just because we want to know where our daughter is buried. You know, so I applaud them for this courageous, courageous decision of them to accept this plea deal. Yes, absolutely. So he did actually lead detectives to this. There was a cemetery.

where her body was buried along under the grave of a World War II veteran, Arthur Holtz.

hurt. His family gave permission to exhume his body, and they found her remains buried two feet below the grave. Again, just when I think it can't get worse, when I think he can't, you know, be more criminal, you know, more criminal, then he goes and does this. This just blows my mind. So now here's a whole nother family. And

that we're affecting here, the family of Mr. Hurt. They have to exhume their father's grave? That's unspeakable. Think about this, though. Number one, how many people have had this idea and how many graves are there out there that have other bodies buried beneath the one that is known to be buried there? And number two,

I doubt they would have ever found her body. I mean, they would have probably never known where she was had they not made that, as you said, very courageous decision. Yeah, she would have never been found because that's a trope that we all follow. We don't disturb grave sites. So she would have never been found. There would have been no way. I mean, even if for some reason...

They needed to exhume Mr. Hurt's body for some reason. They had to go two feet below that grave. Yeah, they wouldn't have dug further, right? They would have just left the hole, and then when they were done, they would have put him back in it. They would have never, ever, ever found her. And I read another news article about this.

crime. And Mr. Sandoval, he worked at the cemetery in 1995. Here you have this guy whose wife is missing, her coat's in his apartment, he has a wet shovel, right, and a flashlight, and he worked, or maybe he worked, I don't know, but he worked for the cemetery in 1995. And there were only

three or four other open graves like on that day or around that time, you know, that folks were going to be buried in. So he knew exactly what he was doing. He knew exactly. I'm sure he, you know, put her in his car, wrapped her in a tarp, got the shovel. Maybe he already had it, you know, went and looked which graves were open. Okay. Oh, this guy's going to be buried today. I'll, you know, dig two feet down. They'll never find her. He knew exactly what he was doing.

So unfortunately, if they had had better detective work back in 1995 and look at his work history, oh, he worked for a cemetery? The two and two together. Yeah. He had a wet, dirty shovel? Which people were buried around that time frame? Go look at those, you know, yeah. Right. They still would have been relatively fresh. You know, it shouldn't have been, you know, as difficult to exhume them, of course. Yeah.

It's not like you have somebody confessing. So it would probably be a little bit more difficult to convince family members to disturb, you know, just based on a hunch that it could be, I guess. But still, to not even have tried. Or they could use, you know, ground sonar or something. I don't know. Again, like you, I watch too many crime stories. But I just...

There were so many things missed, I think. There were a lot of things done correctly. I'm glad that when she was going to meet up with him, that she had a plan to call her sister the next day. That was awesome. When the sister didn't hear from her, the mother went to his apartment right away. That was cool. She noticed the coat. They went to the police right away. They did so many things correctly, what they tell you to do when someone goes missing. They did so many things right. Right.

And yet, you know, here we are, what is this, 10 years later, and they still hadn't found her. So it just, it's a very sad story. Yeah. As part of his plea deal, he was sentenced to 25 years for second degree murder, but he refused to tell authorities how his wife died or why he killed her. So his next parole hearing is scheduled for 2026, but...

Tina's family is working to keep him behind bars. She said, we're working as a family to try to keep him put away. He gets good behavior when he's in prison because there are no women in prison. That's his favorite thing, collecting women. So the way they look at it is anytime he comes up for parole, they're going to be there. They're going to be there to tell their story, to tell why they believe. And the thing is, yes, he told where her body was, but...

They have to realize that you're letting, you know, if you decide to let him out, you're letting someone out who took some, not only took someone's life, but then hid their body. And then the only reason that they agreed, because he knew he was convicted already had, you know, so he knew he was facing another trial where he'd already been convicted. So he knew that the chances of him being convicted again were probably pretty good. Um,

So the only reason that he told them was really to, so that he, you know, would hopefully get out of prison at some point in his life. Right. Yeah. Reduce his sentence so that he wouldn't spend life in prison. Yeah. But the fact that even after he killed her, then he moved to Vegas and there he is still doing criminal acts, you know, still following women into their hotel rooms and sexually assaulting them.

You know, still being a criminal. I just hope all of that's taken into account by the parole board. It's just what a sad, sad story. Well, think about this, too. So at the beginning of the story, we said he was in school to become a rad tech. He was going to be the person that is in there while...

potentially women have to come in there with, you know, put on a gown and lay down flat in these, you know, in that tube to get an MRI or get a CT. Even for a chest x-ray. Oh, you got to take your underwire bra off. Oh yeah. He would have been there at very intimate moments for sure. So just think about that. I don't want to make everyone paranoid about all their coworkers, but at the same time,

You have a responsibility to advocate for your patient. And if it's possible for you to be there, be in the room with them, be available, go down to CT with them. If it's possible, I know that there are times when it's just not. I mean, you have so many other things going on and you just can't do it. But if it's possible...

Then go with your patient, be there for them, make sure they stay covered, make sure that someone's not, you know, especially if they're not able to speak up for themselves, you know. Right, right.

Yeah, or it's a very sensitive study, or, you know, in his case, it would have been, you know, a male caregiver with a female patient. Yeah, any, I mean, it's, being a patient is vulnerable anyway. But yeah, there are some other instances where it can really kick it up a notch. And what if it was a dementia patient? And, you know, she wouldn't have known what goes on. So...

Yeah, you're right. Thank heavens he never did graduate as a rad tech because he probably, he would have just had victim after victim brought to him, literally.

So I have to tell you guys about an experience I had with a nursing student. So you know I've been doing travel nursing. Well, this hospital where I'm at has a lot of LPN students doing their clinicals there. So one of them was following me around one day and she noticed my stethoscope. And of course, y'all know the Echo Technology Company that sponsors our podcast. They teamed up with Littman to make the stethoscopes to beat all stethoscopes, the 3M Littman Core Digital Stethoscope. And

and this is the one that I use now. So she said, Oh my gosh, I've been wanting to try one of those. So of course I let her use it. And she just could not stop talking about it for the rest of the shift. It was so cute. She was like, you know, I can't hear anything with my normal stethoscope because I have tinnitus. And so she was so excited because she could actually hear what heart sounds were supposed to sound like. She said, I'm going to ask for one of these for graduation. And I was like, yeah, you definitely should. So just so you know,

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Karen and I both have worked in hospitals, so we know what it's like to take our patients down to CT, take our patients down for an MRI. Sometimes you're down there a lot. I feel like I was down there all the time, just constantly. Well, at one time when I was a team leader, if their nurse wasn't available to go down, or sometimes I was just like, but do you want me to go down with them? Or do you want me to watch your other patients while you go down? So whatever you want me to do.

But I did go down to, because most of the time the nurses would choose to, like, you go down with them because they didn't want to have to go down. Like, they had so many other things to do. And then just that whole process, you know, it's kind of, especially if there's like IV drips and all sorts of stuff, you know, attached to them. I mean...

I worked in a cardiovascular ICU and we had to take patients down sometimes that were on ECMO. I mean, you talk about a team effort. It was like everybody holding tubes and lines and man, just pushing it like you got the bed going, you got this, you know, all these attachments. It was, man, that's some crazy stuff.

So it's stressful. I think it's, it can be stressful. It's not just like a, yay, I get to go off the floor for a field trip. It's not like that. Like you're responsible for your patient. So you're,

you know, like getting them from the bed to the table. Yeah, it's more like you're in a circus and you're riding a unicycle and you're having to spin plates while you're at it. So yeah, no, it's never a fun ride, that's for sure. And plus, you know, the whole time you're going down there, there's not a, you can't do anything. You're just literally going with your patient. You're being with them. You're just one-on-one with this patient. In the meantime, you know, you've got, when I was on PCU, you know, you've got two other patients and sometimes three.

three other patients, which was inappropriate, but it's, it happened. You got all this and you're thinking, oh, I need to hang that antibiotic for that person when I get back and I need to do this. No, I had it in new trach care. And you know, you're just trying to, you realize all the stuff that you're, you're not doing while you're off the floor. So that contributes, I think, to

to a little bit of tension by the time you get down to radiology, whether a nurse decided not to even go with their patient at all. Like there are some situations and depending on hospital policy where maybe a nurse doesn't even accompany the patient. They just transporter takes them down there.

So then the transporter goes down and now you've got the rad tech who's down there who is maybe going, oh, I have to push contrast in there. You know, IV is not working or they have, it's in the wrong spot. So there's a little judging going on there. But if the, if the nurse is with them, then, you know, you've got all the stress going on. I'm thinking of what's going back on, on the floor, trying to advocate for your patient. You kind of maybe butt heads a little bit with the, the, the, the tech and,

So this article that I found, which is really cool, is from McNeese State University in Louisiana. It's from McNeese.edu. And they have a little segment where they put different articles and stuff. And this one article is McNeese radiological sciences student makes history. And this is very recent. It's from May of 2024, which is just a couple of months ago.

It says that McNeese State University Radiologic Sciences spring graduate Mackenzie Mitchell made history by becoming the first McNeese Radiologic Sciences student to be published before graduation with her article, Imaging Evidence of Eating Disorders. She is also the first student nationwide to be published in the journal with a single author article before a national certification is awarded.

The article was included in the January 2024 issue of Radiologic Technology, the Journal of the American Society of Radiologic Technologists. So Mitchell of DeRitter found her passion in radiology at McNeese. She said she wanted a degree that provided job security, earning potential and opportunities to grow.

And she said, through the classes, I realized that radiology is something that I truly enjoy. She originally wrote the article as a class assignment, not considering publication. It focuses on eating disorders and how advancements in medical imaging have changed the way they are treated. She said, eating disorders is a topic that is particularly special to me, having struggled with my own. She said, my article also attempts to answer whether structural changes in diagnosed individuals' brains are a cause or effect of eating disorders.

She said after submitting the assignment, her professors suggested submitting the article to the American Society of Radiologic Technologists. And yeah, she said it was an honor for her professor to suggest submitting the article for publication. That's a big deal. As someone who's had to read so many journal articles, and I know you have too, I'm

to write papers and really just looking up if you are trying to truly practice evidence-based nursing and that's what you're going to go for, right? Or anything in healthcare. So she's contributing to that. I'm so incredibly proud of someone who's a student to have written a paper that is of such a

such a high level of, you know, quality of writing and research that they wanted to publish her work. So super, super, super proud of her. Mackenzie Mitchell, a radiologic technologist. I'm just, and this McNeese State University in Louisiana. I think it's pretty cool that they, they honor their graduates like that. You know, that's pretty cool. Well, that's just, she's just amazing. I mean, she's going to go really far in,

And kudos to the professor for recommending, you know, that she submit that. And just because you submit it doesn't mean it's going to be published either. So...

But to help her work through that process, and my gosh, they published it. So she, like they said, she's the first, you know, person in school to have a published article and the first one to have a single author article because it sounds like she just wrote it herself. That's just amazing. This woman is going to go far. That's, I'm just...

Like you, I'm very, very proud of her. I think this is great. I am too. She's exactly the type of people that we need in healthcare, especially working at the bedside, especially, you know, helping patients. She's who we need in the radiology department. When a patient comes down who, for whatever reason, the nurse wasn't able to come with them, she's the person that we need. Some people like her who are,

obviously care about patient outcomes and care about doing things that are evidence-based and care about advocating for their patients. So I'm just super proud of her and I'm,

I also am very just proud of all of the people that work in radiology. And I would just want to sing their praises because they go to school and have degrees and are highly accomplished. And they are professionals. They are highly skilled, highly educated, highly capable. And they work very hard for their degrees and their education. So I just want to give them kind of a shout out and thank

Also kind of call on all of us, you know, as colleagues to work with one another, you know, we can have that silo effect where we only know what we do. And we think that what we do is the most important thing, whatever, whoever we are, whether we're nurses, we're doctors, we're radiologic technologists, whatever.

whether we're respiratory therapists or physical therapists, we think that what we do is, you know, it's the hardest job. It's the most important job. It's like, it's because we have that silo effect that we can't see over, you know, the silo into the other realm to see what those people do. Yeah. We have blinders on. Yeah. And that's, but I think that's why perhaps nursing and radiologic technologists are

may perhaps sometimes butt heads because what they do and what we do, of course, is just so highly skilled and highly specified, you know, the skill required. And so, like you said, you know, they're in their silo, they've got their blinders on and they're thinking, okay, for safety, we're going to do this, this, this, I'm going to get her in this position, blah, blah, blah. You

The nurse with the patient is thinking, you know, oh gosh, I have to get her back up and get those packed red blood cells into her. And, you know, again, all with our own skill set. And so I totally agree with you. We just need to, like the rest of the world in humanity, we just need to be a little bit kinder with each other in all aspects, whether it's work or shopping or at church, strangers on a street. We all just need to be a little bit kinder with each other, a little bit more patient and

And try to understand where they're coming from. I totally respect them because I can't do what they do. I don't know the position the patient needs to be in and whether metal can go in with them or not. There's so much I don't know about that. So I'm just like, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy. Tell me where to stand and how I can help you. We're all doing it for the same reason. We want to take care of the patient.

So when we take a patient down to their department, best believe they know what's best for that patient, probably, most of the time, right? I mean, unless the patient's coding or something, that might be different. But let's just all be a little kinder and a little bit more understanding. We're all doing it for the patient. Yes. Work together, collaborate, and work together. Be kind to one another. Be patient with one another.

Even if the other person isn't being that way. And that's sometimes the hardest thing to do. If the other person is being rude, if they're being, you know, they're kind of being the one that's not appreciating you or not respecting you, it's really difficult, you know, to not just give it right back to them. Yeah.

It's so tempting. Yeah, I always just try and like stop myself and say, okay, they're probably having a really bad day. You know, let me not make it worse for them. You know, just it's, yeah, everyone has their bad days. And we've all been there too. You know, sometimes we've been a little short with people. And so again, if we could all just practice a little bit more kindness, more patience.

And be human with each other. Yes, absolutely. Well, Karen, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast and helping me churn out another episode of Good Nurse, Bad Nurse and talk about these issues.

We had a really, really sad story to begin with, but I'm so glad that good nurse story was just amazing. That young woman is a superstar. Yes, absolutely. Remind everybody where they can find you if they're wanting to look up Wound Care Karen. Yes, absolutely. So I do have a podcast. It's called Wound Care Karen, a nursing podcast. I haven't released one in a while because I've been busy with my other work. I do continue to work full-time in a wound care department, which I love.

And then I've also started some legal nurse consulting business. And so I'm on LinkedIn, again, under Wound Care Karen. And I can help attorneys with pressure injury cases or any wound care, really. But I'll be honest, most of them are pressure injury cases. I have 30 years experience, and I'm just parlaying that into a new career of consulting. It's going really, really well. And it

It's also helped me be a better nurse because I believe I chart a little bit better. Knowing the flip side, because as a legal nurse consultant, you know, I read other nurses' documentation so that I can find out, you know, did they turn the patient? Did they order a mattress?

Yeah. So it's made me a better nurse also. So win-win. Yes. And the thing is, when you start looking into, because I've had several legal nurse consultants on and really looked into legal nurse consulting a lot, just talking to different people.

Robert Molaire has been on here several times and a few others. And so one thing I do know is that it opens your eyes up to all of the things that can happen and the ways that the things that attorneys will look for that we're doing and we probably shouldn't be doing. So, yeah, it's important. Yeah.

Again, I don't think this is always taught in nursing school. Maybe it is now. I hope it is now. You know, better documentation. But when I graduated in 94, it wasn't taught. Documentation, correct documentation, super, super important. Well, guys, you know, I always love to hear from you. You can send me an email at tina at goodnursebadnurse.com. And I'm on social media at Good Nurse Bad Nurse. And our website is goodnursebadnurse.com.

But I also have to remind you before we leave, even if you're a bad girl or a bad boy, be a good nurse and a good radiological technologist. And be kind and patient with each other. Absolutely.