Tuesday 11th September 2007 - An unusual day

Tuesday

Today was an unusual day in what is normally a busy department, the reason is there was hardly any patients until the days finale, a number of clinics which require imaging had small lists and a number of those patients were post op checks which didnt require imaging. Luckily the department was a little short on staff through holidays which compensated for a quiet day at least thats what we thought.

At around two o clock in the afternoon the bell started ringing and was relentless until quarter to five, in that small period of time there were around a half days worth of M.I.U cases for imaging, a large variety of cases where I was allowed to practice.

This situation meant that the Radiographer supervising allowed me to take control (whilst I was being watched), as though I was on my own, this was great for my confidence as there may come a time where I will be on my own in a department with nobody around. An example of a situation would be when "On Call" you get called out at any time in the night from six o clock until eight o clock the following morning. If the image is deemed neccessary you never know what you may get or the condidtion of the patient and you will be on your own as only one Radiographer is on call per week.

I found this a challenge which was extremely difficult to start with but one which in an afternoon has made me understand that I may not be in a department with others when working, and that confidence and being organised is the key to getting the task done.

I managed a littels ystem of work and stuck to it;
Select Cassette - Extremity or Other
Select Exposure - Adult or Pead and reduce kV accordingly
Pads and Protection at hand
Patient details - print off required labels and place on request slip
Bring patient through, ID and acquire image
Leave Patient in the room whilst you label the cassette and process
Assess the image (with a lot of help!)
Take the patient back through to M.I.U
Place films on M.I.U light box and point anything out.
Post Process and find out where the fim packet is
Set up the room for the next patient.

I managed a far number with a lot of assistance to speed the process along, what a learning curve!! Bring on tommorrow.