Sunday story: Nuclear power as a propulsion system – richmondmagazine.com

Like many people, I don’t like medical tests, so when I went to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center downtown for a test, I was nervous. Actually, “terrified” is a better word for what I was feeling. That was until I met Jennifer Love and Nichole Sands, both certified nuclear medicine technicians.

Love is the head of PET (positron emission tomography) imaging and Sands is in charge of both nuclear medicine and PET imaging. They both made me feel comfortable and understood, and even trusted them to guide me through the exams. And as if that wasn’t enough, they made me laugh, a simple reaction that took away my fear and that I really appreciated.

Love, who grew up in Centreville and graduated from Randolph-Macon College and VCU, had only two dollars left when she decided to go back to college for nuclear medicine. “I’m an athlete and I wanted to do physical therapy, but there weren’t that many classes back then. I’m interested in anatomy, physiology and physics – all my nerdy superpowers combined,” she says, mentioning that her sister is a pathologist and sparked her interest in the medical field. “I had never heard of nuclear medicine until I started flipping through a study guide.”

Sands, another VCU graduate who grew up in Spotsylvania, came to Richmond to pursue a degree in biomedical engineering but found she didn’t really like the field. “I wanted to combine my interest in medicine and science,” she says. She took a one-hour course in clinical radiation and was intrigued. “I liked the radiology part,” she says, “then I discovered nuclear medicine and thought, ‘I like medicine, physiology and science.'”

In their work, Love and Sands work closely with other radiology disciplines. “What I really like about nuclear medicine is that we study physiology,” says Love. “We study how organ systems work and function.”

The testing protocol is based on step-by-step guidelines, and Love likes to work within those guidelines to get the best study. “I know what I’m seeing and how to get the best out of the camera and the patient so we all get the final report,” she says. “I can use my mind every day to troubleshoot within the guidelines.”

Sands, who loves puzzles and solving riddles, finds the job fascinating and credits her high school physics teacher for sparking her interest in physics. “We get to do a lot of interesting studies. I really like seeing how organ systems work,” she says, pointing out that studies can be arranged to investigate specific things. “A study doesn’t have to be arranged the same way for every person.”

Both women love working with and getting to know the people they test.

“Nobody comes to us because they’re fine,” Love says. “Sometimes you prove that everyone is healthy and normal, and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes it stops patients in their tracks. I say, ‘It’s OK, I’ll take care of you.’ When I’m there, no one cries alone. I make sure there’s trust in my presence, and I enjoy that challenge.”

For the study to be successful, the patient must actively participate in the testing, Love adds. “They have to participate by telling me, as a technician, how I can help them – do they want music during the test? Do they want quiet? Etc.”

Sands likes to educate patients about the tests they will undergo. “I want them to feel confident about what’s happening to them,” she says. “I like to watch their tests and find out what’s going on, and I want to help them find answers.”

She says she has learned to understand people when she meets them. “If they are anxious, I can spend a lot of time talking to them. I want them to feel like they have an idea of ​​what happened and what imaging we did on them.”

While Love and Sands both admit to being introverted in their free time, they’ve learned to be the opposite at work. “Being an extrovert is what’s required in my job,” Sands says. “I want to be caring and compassionate. I like to be funny. It’s important to be able to add some levity to a situation and not be so damn serious.”

“This is where we can contribute,” Love adds. “When you put a good team together, it brings out so much more in each of us.”

Thanks to these two pros, my test was actually a pleasant experience—did I mention the dance party at the end? “There’s a lot we can do to be creative,” Love says. “We just want people to feel comfortable with that part of the journey.”

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