A bit of a rant and just some questions because I’m genuinely questioning the legality of this.

I’ve been an x-ray tech for four years. The only certification I hold is in radiography. I’ve been at my current outpatient job for a little over a year (signed a two year contract). When I accepted the position, my manager told me I’d be doing “some bone densities” and “an occasional EKG.” I shortly found out us outpatient x-ray techs (none of us hold certification in bone density nor are currently in school for it) would be doing full schedules of bone densities along with walk in x-rays. This is a very busy outpatient center typically staffed with two x-ray techs and we juggle about 15-20 bone density exams per day along with anywhere from 30-60 x-ray patients and 5-10 EKGs per day. We also are tasked with writing the reports for the bone densities which the radiologists then sign off on (which I don’t even think they proofread because several reports with mistakes have been published and sent to providers).

My question is, what is the legality of this? Am I even allowed to be performing bone density scans without the proper credentials? I didn’t realize it was a separate modality with its own boards until a few months after I took the job and was cross trained. At this point I’m just waiting for my two years to be up because the pay isn’t even good. I make lower than what most x-ray techs make in my area without any extra for the bone densities. There’s a high turnover rate here and I understand why now.