Radiation Safety

Hello Nurses,
I have learned that shielding,time, and distance can reduce your risk of radiation exposure in hospitals. Just curious, what health problems can radiation cause and how ?
Thank you in advance.
Before I became a nurse I used to work in a Cardiologist. I did Nuclear Stress testing with the doctor. I went for my pap smear and my cells came back abnormal. For the life of me I can't remember what they were called. But my gyno told me that the cause of the change is radiation exposure. I stopped doing the Nuclear Stress Testing and went back a couple months later for another Pap and the cells were back to normal. My gyno said that these cells changed from being exposed to the nuclear medicine that the patients were injected. Needless to say, I never did the Nuclear stress testing again.

I doubt if many nurses are radiation experts. I don't even know exactly what "radiation" means. People get more exposure to "radiation" from one cross country airplane flight (the sun puts out "radiation") than 100's of exposures to x-rays at a dentists or other routine x-rays. Even saying that. Every hospital I have worked in requires nurses who might work around x-ray equipment to wear a badge that is exchanged every two months and tested for how much exposure that nurse received.

Quote from healthstarHello Nurses,I have learned that shielding,time, and distance can reduce your risk of radiation exposure in hospitals. Just curious, what health problems can radiation cause and how ? Thank you in advance.

summitAP I should have said, I doubt many nurses, except SummitAP, are radiation experts. Thanks for the information.

Well, I think a bit of confusion stems from the concept of "radiation." Simply put, radiation is a nebulous description of matter waves moving about. This can be anything from visible light to the relatively massive alpha particle and all other types including radio waves, x-rays, and gamma rays.Radiation in basic terms is simply a way of moving energy about. When that energy hits the human body, many things can occur. Often, weakly interacting particles such as billions of neutrinos pass through us as if we were empty space without any ill effect. However other types of radiation or energy transfer will impact atoms in our cells and deliver that energy to the various atoms and molecules. The results will typically vary according to how much energy is transferred.Ionizing radiation delivers such high amounts of energy, it can literally knock electrons off atoms to put it into simple terms. Since much of organic and bio chemistry stems from electron interactions, this typically alters molecules and atom structure. Sometimes this damage can be repaired, sometimes not. Again, radiation is basically a way of transporting energy in the form of a matter wave. It may sound strange but all matter behaves like a particle and wave. That's another story however.

OP, you can also contact your hospital's RSO (Radiation Safety Officer) with additional questions. This person is usually a Health Physicist.Brownbrook, thanks for the compliment, but again, I am not yet a nurse. 2 years!Quote from GilaRNSimply put, radiation is a nebulous description of matter waves moving about. This can be anything from visible light to the relatively massive alpha particle and all other types including radio waves, x-rays, and gamma rays.

Right, we are still talking about light, just very high energies. I do think things like alpha particles and so on (stuff with mass) do apply to this discussion. I was trying to say that radiation is a rather vague term that explains a variety of things. You have two years left? Did you look into the prior degree RN programmes? You may be able to finish in a year.

I know that nurses are not radiation experts, but you don't need to be an expert to know a few things about radiation. I don't know much and I was wondering if any of you could help. We are exposed to radiation everyday and we don't think about it. Why is it a big deal when working with hospital equipment?I know the definition of radiation but how dangerous can radiation be? What health problems can it cause? Anyway...I just want to thank all of you for your responses. Anything can help.

Quote from healthstarI know that nurses are not radiation experts, but you don't need to be an expert to know a few things about radiation. I don't know much and I was wondering if any of you could help. We are exposed to radiation everyday and we don't think about it. Why is it a big deal when working with hospital equipment?I know the definition of radiation but how dangerous can radiation be? What health problems can it cause? Anyway...I just want to thank all of you for your responses. Anything can help.

Gila: 'fraid I didn't quite finish the BSNE, otherwise an ABSN would be a good plan. When I finish by BSN, I'll have over 200 credits!Quote from healthstarI know that nurses are not radiation experts, but you don't need to be an expert to know a few things about radiation. I don't know much and I was wondering if any of you could help. We are exposed to radiation everyday and we don't think about it. Why is it a big deal when working with hospital equipment?I know the definition of radiation but how dangerous can radiation be? What health problems can it cause? Anyway...I just want to thank all of you for your responses. Anything can help.

Quote from SummitAPGila: 'fraid I didn't quite finish the BSNE, otherwise an ABSN would be a good plan. When I finish by BSN, I'll have over 200 credits!

Quote from GilaRNSummit summed the effects up pretty effectively. If you remember back to chemistry, the atoms that make up our cells and complex molecules rely on the interaction of electrons. Basically, atoms can share, gain and loose electrons to form bonds. Of course, other concepts such as dipole interactions and noncovalent bonds other than ionic play a role, but we can all agree that electron interactions are very important.When ionizing radiation smashes into our cells and disrupts the very interactions that make biology possible, it is easy to understand why we need to worry about problems such as cancer. Additionally, we can appreciate the effects of "regular" (nonionizing) heat and conventional burns quite easily.