Don’t fear the theatre? Newly-qualified radiographers’ tales of conflict and camaraderie

Sloane, Charles ORCID logo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5343-7626 , Miller, Paul K. ORCID logo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5611-1354 , De Witt, Julie, Hoelterhoff, Mark and Marland, Amanda (2020) Don’t fear the theatre? Newly-qualified radiographers’ tales of conflict and camaraderie. In: United Kingdom Imaging and Oncology Congress: Pathways and Communication, June 1-3, 2020, Liverpool ACC. (Unpublished) Full text not available from this repository.

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Abstract

Background: The rapidly changing landscape of healthcare provision in the UK has left many medical imaging curricula struggling to fully equip their graduates for immersion in clinical practice upon qualification (Sloane and Miller, 2017). The national study from which the findings reported below are drawn aimed to explore the practical experiences of recently-qualified diagnostic radiographers, with a view to highlighting how well-prepared they had found themselves to be in professional contexts. A key emergent concern related to working in operating theatres.

Methods: Extended semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with N=20 radiographers (f=13, m=7) working at sites across the UK. All had graduated a maximum of two years previously. Transcribed data were investigated using the techniques of Straussian Grounded Theory (Waring et al., 2018).

Results: Theatre-related experience addressed four core key participant concerns. (1) A lack of academic and placement-based preparation regarding “what to expect” in theatre, both of which brought into sharper relief: (2) A sense of unpreparedness for the technical expectations of a radiographer in theatre, and (3) the often highly pressurised - and sometimes inferably hostile - interpersonal environment therein. The latter, however, was to some extent offset by (4) a reported strong sense of camaraderie and support among radiographers themselves, and particularly immediate peers, around theatre work.

Conclusion: These findings confirm and develop upon a number of concerns raised by Naylor and Foulkes (2018) regarding student radiographers’ readiness for the technical and social demands of theatre, and underscore a possible shortfall in current curricula and placement structures.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Speech)
Departments: Institute of Health > Medical Sciences
Social Issues in Medical Imaging (SIMI)
Depositing User: Paul Miller
Date Deposited: 24 Apr 2020 14:03
Last Modified: 13 Jan 2024 10:46
URI: https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/5526
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