Has anyone done shadow work in a radiography ward?

Has anyone done shadow work in a radiography ward?
Can anyone explain in great detail what they saw and experienced while shadowing at radiography ward all the technology they used. My hospital don’t allow us to shadow work so I’m finding it difficult plz help

Reply 1

normaw

Volunteer Section Leader, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Tyit

Sorry for the late reply. There are lots of 'A day in the life of a DR' videos on Youtube that will help you with this. For example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuD2NZG9AEs

Also:

https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/medicine-health-and-social-care/allied-health-professions-public-health/diagnostic-radiography/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-diagnostic-radiographer.aspx

Reply 2

CCCU Health Rep

Official Rep

Original post by Tyit

Definitely find out as much as you can using online resources and videos that take you through a day in the life of a radiographer. A lot of people do find it difficult to directly shadow or gain experience with a radiographer, so being able to research an understand the full scope of the profession is key.

If you can gain any experience in a clinical environment, even if not related to radiography, this could support you if you are thinking of applying to university to study radiography. You can then relate any skills or attributes that you already have to the knowledge you have gained through research and indirect experience in a similar environment using experiences to provide evidence 🙂

Springpod is a great website to source virtual work experience, and there is currently a free programme on there with a module on Allied Health Professions including radiography which may be useful (you also get a certificate of completion at the end) The Hospital Virtual Work Experience

Reply 3

HellomynameisNev

Original post by Tyit

We know a sonographer in our local hospital, and she was able to put me in touch with the head radiographer, so I got to spend 2 days in a radiology department - 1 day in x-ray, then a 1/2 day each in CT & MRI. I can only speak to my experience of that particular department, but I found that x-ray was organised chaos - I still refer to it as being like healthcare McDonalds, every patient was 5 minutes in-and-out, everyone was running round doing their jobs as they should, but from the outside it looks like pandemonium 😀 You spend most of your time standing up, and by the end of the day my back was killing me which was a major mark against it for me.

If x-ray was organised chaos, CT was just chaos.

MRI - x-ray and CT staff warned me how boring it was in there and how they did nothing all day, but I enjoyed it the most. Patient appointment times are a lot longer (~30 mins) and I enjoyed the more thoughtful approach to the work in there compared to CT/x-ray.

In the end I ended up choosing radiotherapy rather than diagnostic radiography because I felt it was a more rewarding career where you get to spend more time with the patients, and I didn't enjoy the revolving door nature of working in x-ray.