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Role standards

Imaging and diagnostics

MRI technologist

What a newly certified MR technologist must do safely without supervision: acquire a diagnostic MRI study for the clinical question while keeping every person and object that is not verified safe out of the magnet room, because the magnet is always on. Drawn from the ARRT Magnetic Resonance Imaging examination and the ACR Manual on MR Safety.

Practice this assessmentHire for this role
Expectations
10
Safety red lines
4
Sources
5
Version
1

Built from American Registry of Radiologic Technologists, American College of Radiology, Radiology, Radiological Society of North America, American Society of Radiologic Technologists. Reviewed by clinicians, last on .

01What the role is measured on#

Every verdict is made of the same five dimensions. Each is scored on its own, so a candidate sees where they are strong and where to work.

  • Clinical skillsThe hands-on and judgement work of the role: recognising what matters, acting in the right order, and knowing when something cannot wait.
  • Workflow and toolsGetting the work done in a real setting: the systems, records, equipment and handoffs the role runs on, used correctly and on time.
  • Patient communicationHow the role talks with patients, families and colleagues: listening, explaining plainly, and confirming what was understood.
  • Compliance and safetyThe rules that protect people: privacy, consent, infection control, reporting duties and the safety checks the role is accountable for.
  • Role knowledgeKnowing the job itself: what the role is responsible for, where its scope ends, and who to bring in when it does.

02What a ready hire does#

What a competent mri technologist does on day one, dimension by dimension.

Clinical skills

  • Selects the protocol for the clinical question, positions and coils the patient so RF heating cannot build up, and runs sequences that answer the question, adapting for motion, metal and tolerance.
  • Screens for gadolinium contrast risk, gives contrast only on a valid order and within documented competence, and recognises and responds to reactions and extravasation.

Workflow and tools

  • Reviews each sequence as it completes for coverage, artefacts and diagnostic adequacy, names the cause of an artefact and the change that fixes it, and knows when to repeat, adapt or tell the radiologist.
  • Uses the order, the record and the imaging systems to check the indication, prior imaging, kidney function and implant history, and keeps image, contrast and screening records complete.

Patient communication

  • Explains the scan, the noise, the time and what the patient must do in plain words, prepares an anxious or claustrophobic patient, and confirms they understood before the scan starts.
  • Knows when consent or a documented physician decision is needed - contrast where policy requires it, sedation, a device scanned outside routine conditions - confirms it before scanning, and takes questions about risk to the radiologist.

Compliance and safety

  • Screens every person and object before Zone III and Zone IV access, verifies implants against their MR labelling and conditions, and controls the zones on the understanding that the magnet is always on.
  • Confirms identity with two identifiers against the order and the screening form before scanning, and checks that the images carry the right identity before they are sent.

Role knowledge

  • Responds to an emergency in the MRI suite without letting the response create a projectile or a burn: gets the patient out of Zone IV for resuscitation, keeps responders and their equipment out, and knows when a quench is and is not the answer.
  • Works within the MR technologist's scope: scans on a practitioner's order, does not interpret or disclose findings, and takes safety decisions beyond protocol to the radiologist or MR medical director.

03Safety red lines#

Any one of these keeps a candidate from Ready Day One, whatever the rest of the score. They are published so nobody meets them for the first time in the assessment.

  • Would let a person or object into Zone IV without completed screening and verification - an unscreened visitor, staff member or porter, or equipment such as an oxygen cylinder, trolley or IV pole not confirmed MR Safe or MR Conditional - including 'just for a second' or because nobody is being scanned.

    The static field is always on. A ferromagnetic object becomes a projectile that has killed patients, and an unscreened person can carry an implant or fragment that moves, heats or fails.

  • Would scan a patient with an implant or foreign body whose MR status is unknown, or outside its labelled conditions, on the patient's or a colleague's word, without verified labelling or a documented decision by the radiologist or MR medical director.

    A device scanned outside its conditions can heat, move, malfunction or be reprogrammed; for a pacemaker, a neurostimulator or an aneurysm clip that can be fatal.

  • Would scan with skin-to-skin contact or cables looped or touching the patient or bore, or would continue or restart a sequence after the patient reports heating or burning without stopping to check.

    Conductive loops and cables concentrate RF energy into a burn, and the patient's report is often the only warning; sedated patients cannot give it.

  • In a medical emergency in the magnet room, would let the code team, a crash cart, a defibrillator or an oxygen cylinder into Zone IV, or attempt resuscitation there, instead of removing the patient to a designated area outside Zone IV.

    Responders and equipment that have not been screened turn a cardiac arrest into a projectile injury, and resuscitation equipment cannot be used safely beside the magnet.

04Outside the role#

Knowing where the role stops is part of the standard. Going past it is not extra credit.

  • Does not interpret images or tell a patient or relative what a scan shows.Refers the question to the radiologist and ordering clinician, and escalates an apparently urgent finding to the radiologist before the patient leaves.
  • Does not clear an implant or device for scanning outside its labelled conditions, or a device that cannot be identified, on their own authority.Verifies the labelling, follows the written protocol, and takes anything outside it to the radiologist or MR medical director for a documented decision.
  • Does not give contrast or anxiolytic or sedative medication without an order, and does not monitor a sedated patient beyond their documented competence.Administers only as prescribed and within facility-documented competence, and has sedated patients monitored by staff credentialed to do it.
  • Does not practise outside the licence or credential held: some US states license MR technologists and others do not, and outside the US the MR safety roles differ, such as the MR Responsible Person in UK MHRA guidance.Works within the licence, the facility's MR safety policies and the authority of whoever holds the MR medical director or equivalent role.

05How it is assessed#

  • A spoken assessment

    An examiner talks the candidate through realistic cases from this role, and follows up the way a senior colleague would.

  • Five dimensions

    Each answer is read against the expectations above and rated on the same four-level scale.

  • The 70 bar

    Every scorecard shows the score against 70, overall and for each dimension, with the reason for the verdict.

  • Safety first

    Crossing one of the safety red lines holds a pass back, however strong the rest was.

The four levels

  1. Not yet
  2. Developing
  3. Proficient
  4. Exemplary
How a verdict is made

06Sources and review#

Drawn from the certification frameworks and practice standards below, and reviewed by clinicians. Version 1, last reviewed .

Cited as sources. Not an endorsement by the organizations named.

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