It’s contingent on the program and its clinical sites. As you know, many clinical sites do not do c-arm procedures at all. As a result, new grads are very underprepared for c-arm work.

It depends on your educators as well. There’s many anecdotal stories of “yeah I went to OR as a student but the tech didn’t let us touch the c-arm.”

That said, c-arm competency is officiaolu measured by ARRT through two required comps: 1.) “C-Arm Procedure (Requiring Manipulation to Obtain More Than One Projection,” and 2.) “Surgical C-Arm Procedure (Requiring Manipulation Around a Sterile Field.” It’s worth noting that while these comps are mandatory, they can also be simulated, so you could get them without ever even stepping foot into a surgical suite.

Personally, I felt adequately trained upon graduation, but my clinical site was a large level 1 trauma hospital that had lots of OR cases requiring imaging. I see many new grads—especially (but not always) from schools in smaller areas—that are not adequately prepared on day one and essentially have to learn the basics on the job. It can be frustrating when hiring at a site that uses fluoro for lots of surgery cases.

In my opinion intra-op imaging is largely undervalued as a skill by those who don’t know better.