Originally Posted by
Bart
There is a minimum standard for everyone. There has to be a starting point, right?
The more experience an x-ray operator has, the better he or she is at detecting threats in a bag. So how do you determine the point of failure? And what do you do when you've discovered a level of difficultly where the operator can't detect the threat? Terminate him from the job? Suspend her pay? Reassign the individual to ticket document checker?
I'm trying to relate this to something I have personal experience with. <Thinking about this.> When I originally trained as an EMT, I had to demonstrate competency in the necessary life-saving skills before I hit the street. That was my starting point.
The more experience I gained, the better I got at detecting the subtle clues that there might be something more going on than appeared on the surface. So, what would happen if I'd reached a livel of difficulty where I didn't detect the clues? Someone would die, that's what. Depending on how egregious the error, I may have been suspended or terminated. I'd certainly have faced a quality assurance review and -- provided my patient hadn't died or my omission hadn't been really egregious -- I may have ended up with heavily-supervised retraining and an extended probationary period during which my every move was reviewed. In the case of a really egregious error, I'd have been terminated and stripped of my credentials.
But, I'll tell you what .... while all this was being determined, I'd not have been left on the street and given the opportunity to kill someone else. I'd have been reassigned to desk duty.