Continuous Professional Development for Third Year Radiography Students - Essay Example

Portfolio for Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for Third Year Radiography Total Number of Words: 1,035 Part I – Summary of Work Practice I feel so excited now that I am about to be a qualified practitioner as a radiographer. Over the years, enrolling myself in BSc (Hons) Diagnostic Radiography and Imaging programme has made me more confident on what I can and cannot do. While taking the course, I have learned more about the role of radiographers when it comes to diagnosis and detecting signs of accidental and non-accidental injuries. I have also gained some knowledge with regards to health promotion and the main causes of disease and disorders including its corresponding pathologies. To become a competitive radiographer, gaining extensive knowledge with regards to the human anatomy is very important since it will affect how radiographers would position the patients during the actual radiographic examination. Through extensive reading, attending class lectures, and clinical practice, I managed to acquire some knowledge or better ideas on basic radiographic techniques such as ways on how to obtain good quality image using different machines like the computed tomography (CT) scan, ultrasound, MRI and x-rays among many others, the importance of professional ethics such as the principles of confidentiality and moral dilemmas about the patients’ mental capacity, the basic human anatomy, reasons why there is a need to remove all metal objects when performing some radiographic imaging scan, and many other ways on how to protect myself and the patients from the harmful effects of excessive radiation dose. Considering all the preparations and studies I had to go through since the first year of school, I feel more confident that I am mentally and emotionally prepared to start my first radiographer post. Gaining some knowledge through extensive reading and clinical practice is totally different from what it is like to be working with other professional radiographers. Despite being optimistic to start my first radiographer post, I feel that I am being challenged particularly when it comes to the need to work closely with other people. As a newly qualified radiographer, I am not really sure how my co-workers would accept me as one of the members of the radiography team. Aside from trying to make friends with them, I guess one of the best ways to overcome my fear of being treated differently is to avoid committing unnecessary mistakes. To avoid committing human errors, it is best on my part to make it a practice to ask my colleagues about their work ethics and standard practice they use when dealing with patients. Perhaps, attending the in-house training could also help me overcome these challenges. It is given that technology used in radiography would changes over time. For this reason, continuous learning either through higher education or doing research on evidence-based practice could also help reduce the risks for human errors. Part II – Personal Statement Manual Handling Few months ago, I attended the Manual Handling course in a University for a day. During the course, attendees were taught about the proper way of positioning, storing, and moving of sensitive equipments such as the MRI as well as the patients. Basically, the Manual Handling course has really been useful in educating all attendees about the standard practice for safe carrying of loads and moving of both patients and the equipments. Attending the Manual Handling course has really been useful in my chosen profession. On placement, I was able to apply what I have learned when I had to lift a patient double my weight. During the course, I was taught about the importance of protecting the health and safety of all healthcare workers. Since the patient was double my weight, I had to ask for my colleagues’ assistance so as to protect my spine from the risks of being injured. Upon assessing my situation, it is advantageous on my part to learn more about the proper techniques in manual handling. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not have the same opportunity I had. As a result, a lot of these people are at risks of getting back injury because of improper lifting procedures. Attending the Manual Handling course is important in terms of being able to protect myself from unnecessary injuries. Therefore, as part of my future action plan, I intend to refresh my knowledge and skills on manual handling by making it a habit to attend the training course each year. By doing so, I can easily update myself with regards to some changes or some information that I missed out during the previous training course. Health Education and Promotion Inside the waiting area, I noticed that there was a poster that aims to educate people on why they should stop smoking. Aside from the printed information about the negative health impacts of smoking, the poster was designed with real-life images on what it can do with the human lungs including the photos or images of people with throat or laryngeal cancer which is also known as the cancer of the “voice box”. Personally, I feel that the poster placed on the bulletin board has really been effective in terms of convincing its target audiences to quit smoking. Using the real-life photos of people with laryngeal cancer, target audiences can have better idea on what they could get out of smoking. I think that placing a very informative poster within the waiting area is good because it can save more lives by educating people about the bad effects of smoking. Using the poster that aims to promote smoking cessation, the smokers may end-up thinking twice about lighting their next cigarette. On the contrary, some of the images shown on the poster are very much provocative. For some people, looking at these images could be unpleasant and disgusting. Upon analyzing the scenario, the benefits of placing the poster inside the waiting area outweighs seeing the unpleasant and disgusting images. Even though some people may find the images offensive, the fact that these images could make the smokers think twice about smoking can create a lot of positive changes to the lives of many people. There is a saying that “health prevention is better than cure”. With this in mind, future action plan should focus more on how healthcare professionals can educate more people by using the said poster. Read More