Questions Flashcards
How do you keep up-to-date with current issues in Radiography? And which do you think are the most important?
I will usually read the Synergy by the Society of Radiographers or have a look at the science direct for new developing research in radiography.
Current issue now is the supply and demand and the backlog from COVID but there is community diagnostic centers being developed so.
What skills and experience can you bring to this role?
I have a lot of experience working with people with dementia as I did placement in a care home before this course and also did a course called bridging the dementia divide which means I have good knowledge and skills to support those with dementia.
I also did placement in a school which gave me the skills to work with young children and parents.
Most importantly I have experience working here which means I know about local policies and systems and stuff.
One of my skills is offering assistance to colleagues and I strongly believe in teamwork.
If a patient became aggressive, what would you do to resolve the situation?
I would deal with this patient with local policies in mind and ensure my personal safety such as keeping space between me and the patient until they have calmed down
I would keep calm and listen to the patients concerns but tell the patient that they shouldn’t shout/get aggressive with me. I would employ de-escalation techniques such as offering choices and finding common ground.
If the situation continues to escalate I would contact security.
I would document the incident either on the system or even DEXTA it if required, including all the details.
Team working is an essential part of healthcare. What skills do you have that make you a good team player?
Communication and confidence having the ability to speak up if there is a concern.
Leadership and getting feedback, im a course rep and ive learnt about getting feedback from others to then feed that forward.
What does clinical governance mean?
There are 7 pillars of clinical governance and is the responsibility of the whole organization to ensure best practice/best care is being delivered. For me, it means getting patient feedback, or doing extra training to provide the best care to my patients.
A surgeon asks for a more experience radiographer in theater, what do you do?
First I would check my images and see if there is any issues with it, e.g if its orthopedics do I have correct exposures and other things like if my IR close to the patient, or is there a lot of magnification.
If I check and find issues, I would fix it and explain to the surgeon the issue and that its fixed
I would say that I don’t want to talk down because the patient is on the table, there is infection risk, and the patient is anesthetic, so there is that risk, the time spent waiting is more risk to the patient. And most likely the patient who would be avavible to replace would probably have similar experience
I would ask the surgeon, what is wrong with the images, what makes him say that and work with him e.g do you need angle, more oblique etc etc.
What are NHS values?
Working together for patients.
Respect and dignity.
Commitment to quality of care.
Compassion.
Improving lives.
Everyone counts.
Can you discuss a challenging case you’ve encountered and how you handled it?
A recent case was a lady for a portable chest x-ray in resus. She was very confused and might had have dementia, moving her would cause distress.
In order to get a good image we had to bring her blankets down because it would show up but she was cold, so I comforted her and kept rubbing her hands to help keep her warm whilst the radiographer prepped the exposure and then i would run away for the x-ray to be done.
When I wasnt comforting her she would keep pulling the blanket up and have her arms on her chest so by doing what I did, we got a decent chest x-ray for her.
She was still turned so we got a Dr to check images and the Dr said we need them less rotated so we had him help move her since he was looking after her and would know about any injuries etc that she had
What are the roles of IMMER regulations and what are their responsibilities
Practitioner, are also involved in authorizing the exposure and it can be the radiologist, who will authorize the exposure if its in the best interest of the patient.
Employer, they are responsible for setting in local policies and providing training and make sure everyone is up to date on their training
Operator is the radiographer and they have to authorize the exposure. It can also be anyone trained to use the equipment so for example I knew a operstpedic surgeon who was trained to use a c-arm as well.
Referrer are the people who have had training and have the ability to request scans, they can be doctors, prescribing nurses and some radiographers can also. e.g mri for orbits
You have a patient that tells you they are a victim of domestic abuse, what do you do
I would document, everything that is said to me, so I might write a witness statement after the interaction.
I would ensure the patient is safe, so e.g if their abuser is in the waiting room, I would keep the patient in the x-ray room, and call security with consent from the patient.
With consent from the patient I would let the safeguarding team know of the situation so that it can be handled when the patient leaves the x-ray department,
If I have to keep the patient in the x-ray room, I would let the referrer know so that they don’t worry about the location of the patient, and so they aren’t waiting for them in the clinic.
And I would let a senior know, since It would be a difficult situation to handle on my own so I would get help and advice from them.
Most importantly, I would ensure that the patient is safe and let them know what I’m doing so they don’t worried.
A Doctor calls from another trust and says they need the images for a patient and asks for you to send them over, what do you do?
First I would ask the doctor to confirm their details and the patients details, so I know they are actually a doctor calling.
Then I would say I am unable to give answers over the phone but I can send them over PACS or the portal view thing to his trust so that they can view the report.
I would say that I cant send them because of data protection and its not a secure line of sending images and I don’t know if anyone is eavesdropping and stuff.
what is the role of a diagnostic radiographer as a profession and its role within the Trust
Radiographers are a central part of the healthcare as they are some of the first people a patient will see during their visit to the hospital. They also see patients during high stress times in patients life’s, whether that is that the patient was referred for a routine chest x-ray from the GP which might be stressful for the patient, or during emergencies such as doing CT head. This means that radiographer’s role requires being compassionate and caring but also understanding IMMER as you need to authorize the exposures and safety checks. But also duty to uphold HCPC standards and operate equipment safety no matter the department.
Within the trust, this hospital is a teaching hospital and its also a HCPC require to teach students and apprentices …
An example of an obstacle you have overcome.
So there was a resus patient for a portable chest x-ray and they were really old and fragile and skinny and I think they had dementia so they were confused.
They had a lot of blankets on them which would cause artifact and they were quite rotated, we tried to straighten the patient up as much as we could but the patient came moving back to their side, so we spoke to the doctor taking care of the patient, so we could learn if the patient had any injuries that would prevent the patient from laying flat etc because they patient is very confusing. So the doctor confirms there is no injuries and helps us to get the patient flat.
We decide to do the x-ray supine as the patient would just rotate again if we tried doing it normally and putting the board under the trolley rather then behind the patient as, with how confused the patient was and fragile the board behind them would have been too painful.
However, the patient kept pulling the blanket back up to cover themselves and I realized its because the patient is cold and they are confused, so the radiographer, went and prepped and I held the patients hands and kept rubbing them so she wasn’t cold and wouldn’t reach for the blankets because she is holding my hands. Once I was happy that the patient wouldn’t move, I told the radiographer to prep, and then I ran away to safe distance, they exposure and we got a decent chest x-ray. we asked the doctor to check to make sure also.
One pillar of clinical governance is audits, can you explain why this is important?
Audits are important because it basically checks what is going well and what isnt going well and it means things can be identified and fixed. For example, I remember a audit that a radiologist did, that was basically, radiographers are not using foreign body markers, which makes it very difficult to write a report on the images because not all foreign bodies are radiopaque. So basically the radiologist identified this problem, and gave a nice talk to remind everyone to use markers.
One pillar of clinical governance is clinical effectiveness and research, can you explain why this is important?
Care needs to be evidence based and designed to deliver the best outcomes for the patient, this means following NICE guidelines to ensure safety and in order to be effective and proirisng certain patients for example, doing a CT scan within 1 hour for patients with a GCS less than 12 because early treatment for bleeds improves patient outcomes.
One pillar of clinical governance is risk management, can you explain why this is important?
Systems should be in place to monitor and reduce risk and its also a legal requirement to report work-related injuries because of RIDDOR, it allows staff to feel comfortable doing DATIX reports as there is no blame bias, to understand what happens and to prevent it from happening.
For example, there was a case where the ward gave contrast to a patient, when they didn’t have an a CT appointment booked, so in order to prevent this the hospital said they wouldn’t send contrast up to the ward until the patient has an appointment.
One pillar of clinical governance is education and training, can you explain why this is important?
Staff need appropriate training and support available to ensure their skills are up to date. CPD is a HCPC requirement after all, but it means that skills are up to date to ensure the best care to patients
for example, a lot more CPD is coming out and talks based on supporting autistic patients in the x-ray department as there wasn’t a lot of training out there before.
One pillar of clinical governance is patient and public involvement, can you explain why this is important?
It ensures that services are suited to patients needs, i remember when working in the angio department, the radiologist was saying its important to get patient feedback from all patients, and he was saying he was happy with the department since they were getting good feedback about how staff were introducing themselves to patients so.
maybe in the past there was feedback that staff wasnt introducing themselves so it become a big move to hi my name is.. because its what patients wanted.
