Radiology Reflective Essay

Diagnostic radiographers are allied healthcare professionals who are specialized in using a wide range of imaging technique and equipment to provide good quality images to diagnose injury or diseases (Singapore Society of Radiographers, 2014). As a professional student radiographer, I have to be proactive and be responsible for my learning. Oswal, Sapherson and Rehman (2009) state that a radiology request form is a clinical document used by physician referring patients for radiological investigations. All radiology request form has to be justified, and the necessary information should be included. Examination requested, requesting doctor’s signature, pertinent identifiers and clinical diagnosis are examples of what should be included in the

request form. Thus, my responsibility as a professional student radiographer is to know how to justify and ensure that the necessary information is included in the request form.

Additionally, as a student radiographer, I must have the ability to use the PLATECAANN technique to help me have a structured way in which to evaluate a radiographic image. PLATECAANN technique is an acronym used to remember the following: patient identification, label, an area of interest, technique, exposure, collimation, artifacts, abnormalities, need for repeats and need for further review. I must be able to confidently analyze and critique images based on a few considerations such as technical quality, diagnostic quality, archival quality and aesthetic quality. Corrective actions are to be taken when necessary to produce an optimal image. Hence, through the use of this image evaluation technique, it serves as a guide on how I should evaluate a radiographic image and quality. This helps to improve my skills, which would be beneficial the moment I start working, as repeat exposures can be minimized and good quality radiographic images can be produced (Martensen, 2015).

At the beginning of the first Inter-professional Education (IPE1) lesson, each student group has been given a topic area to research. My group started off with a discussion on the topic. Each individual were assigned a task to find relevant points for the presentation. Formative presentation was held in one of the lessons, where each group carried out a 15 minutes presentation. Therefore, the preparation of presentation was a great learning experience, as I learned the importance of communication and teamwork skills in ensuring that the slides were well prepared before the day of the presentation. Teamwork, listening, communication and organizational skills were skills I used when preparing for my presentation. Before doing the slides, I gathered, listened and discussed with my team members regarding the topic. After doing our research, we gathered again to organize the slides that we have prepared. Organizing the slides into sections, adding relevant images and colors are examples of how we organized our slides.

I also attended classroom workshops on inter-professional working and communication by Helen York, where I learned the important features of inter-professional working, and the importance of communication in improving patient satisfaction and outcome. During inter-professional working workshop, we had healthcare professionals from various hospitals that came to our school to share about their roles and responsibilities in the healthcare field. An activity was carried out, whereby we were supposed to make a flow chart of healthcare professionals who would be involved in getting into contact with the patient with a certain condition or situation. Each profession is different with different aims, roles, objectives, and values. After the workshop, it made me realize that it is impossible for one single profession to work alone to provide quality health and social care for our service users. Thus, collaboration in a healthcare field is an important feature in ensuring holistic care approach.

During communication workshop, class activities and group work were carried out.

An example of an activity we did during the workshop was ‘Lost At Sea’. We were given a few minutes to work alone, work with a partner and work together as a team to rank the 15 items that we have found in terms of their importance. During the activity, there was a breakdown of communication, which led to a conflict between members of the team. We misunderstood each other as we were using the wrong gesture and wrong tone of voice when communicating. Teamwork, listening, communication and justifying skills were examples of the skills I used during the activity. We shared and justified our opinion, listened to each other and respected all points-of-view within the team. However, conflict happened as we were exposed to more opinion and disagreements during the activity. It made me realize that it becomes more challenging, as the number of people involved in an activity increases. According to Schiper (2006), it states that effective communication skills are necessary to facilitate better understanding among team members and, therefore, reduces conflict. Hence, this activity has shown me the importance of effective communication, respecting one another and working together as a

team.

According to the Allied Health Professions Council (2003), there is a code of conduct developed to set the standards of conduct and behaviour expected of registered allied health professionals to act in the best interest of public and the patients. I had applied some of the professional principles during my learning experience. The professional principles I have applied to act in the best interest of my classmates were: being fair and respecting one another. I ensured that all my classmates were treated equally and with dignity. For example, during the presentation, instead of commenting something that would hurt my classmate’s feelings, I encouraged, recognized their efforts and gave positive comments to them.