Blog

May 13 2018

Reflective Writing for CPD

"How do I know I’m doing it right? Have I written enough? I really struggle with reflective writing. It doesn’t come naturally to me. I don’t see how this is helping my professional development”.

Over the years, I’ve heard Radiographer’s struggle with reflective writing for CPD. I know we’ve all heard one of the above statements from our work colleagues when discussing reflective writing. Reflection doesn’t come naturally to everyone. It’s a skill that requires practice BUT it is essential to our development as individuals and MIT’s. Without reflection, we don’t develop self awareness. Self awareness is the key component of emotional intelligence that allows us to develop a better understanding of ourselves and others.

Reflection at work is important in allowing us to identify our strengths and weaknesses. Then we can work on improving our practice so we can be the best version of ourselves for the benefit of our patients and colleagues. This will have positive flow on effects to our personal lives and relationships. Professional development effects personal development. This can only be a good thing! The better we know ourselves, the better we can respond to situations and people in a thoughtful and caring manner.

To help guide MIT’s in the reflective writing process I’ve created an infographic that is based on Gibb’s Reflective Cycle. There are six steps in the cycle and under each step I have included some example questions as prompts so you can be sure you’re heading in the right direction with your writing. The few prompt questions I’ve posed are not an exhaustive list. You need to delve deeper than just answering the questions in each stage of the process. Self assessment and critical thinking are important in the reflective process.

I found a great website that has a lot of information in reflective practice. So if you want to do more reading of your own on the subject then click the link below.

https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/reflective-practice.html

Don’t forget to like and follow the MIT CPD Hub Facebook page for more information on all things related to Medical Imaging and CPD!

December 5 2017

Do you talk to your patients??

Do you talk to your patients while imaging them? The other day I had a lady tell me how nice it was that I talked to her while I was taking her x-rays. She was genuinely grateful for the interaction and that I was explaining to her what I was doing and why, as I went about the business of taking her x-rays.

I appreciate her compliment. But I can't help but feel a bit disappointed that the expectation of patient care during an imaging examination is so low that I got thanked for talking to her! The fact that she didn't expect me to talk or interact much with her I found quite concerning. I don't know if her observation was going off previous experience or not, but I think this scenario highlights the value of communicating with our patients. They deserve more from us as MIT's than just being asked their name, date of birth and what they're here for.

I can't help but think how awkward and discomforting it would be for a person if I just moved them around during an imaging exam without saying a word. Where's the 'care' in that?? It doesn't take a lot of extra effort to talk to a patient about what you're doing while you prod them and move them around or to engage them in conversation. They'll be more cooperative if you tell them what you're trying to achieve, make them feel comfortable and interact with them. It can be easy to lose sight of the fact that our patient's are people and not 'just a chest' or 'just a hip', especially when it's so busy you're practically running to keep on top of everything. If I put myself in their shoes, what kind of interaction would I expect? I certainly wouldn't like an MIT that didn't say a word after asking my details. Even more so if I was anxious and didn't understand what was happening.

So do you talk to your patients? It will make their imaging experience a lot better if you did and I guarantee they'll appreciate it if you do.

November 8 2017

World Radiography Day!

Today is an important day in the Medical Imaging world. We celebrate the first clinical use of x-rays by Wilhelm Rontgen way back in 1895 and the vital role that Medical Imaging Professional's play in worldwide healthcare. Today has extra special significance for me as it's also the day I sat my qualifying practical/oral exam (CBA to those in NZ) at the end of my training. I took it as a good omen at the time that I was sitting my CBA on World Radiography Day and it worked out very well for me!

Radiography as a profession is probably one of the least understood by the public, in my opinion. I've been called a nurse more times than I can count. I get asked daily about the training I did and get a response of genuine surprise when I tell people I had to do a Bachelor's degree over 3 years to do my job. That's without mentioning the further post grad study needed for MRI, US, Mammography, Nuc Med and on the job training for CT, Fluoro, Angio etc. There is a serious lack of public understanding for the work we do and the role we play. We NEED to make our profession more visible! We aren't "just Radiographer's", we're RADIOGRAPHER'S. I think we need to change our own attitudes to our role, we have valuable knowledge and experience. We are the specialist's in our particular field. Twitter is the only space I've seen so far that Medical Imaging Professional's from across the globe can interact and promote our profession for the general public to see. It can also be as simple as talking to our patients about what we do while we're doing it! You don't have to give them a 5 minute speech about Radiography, just a couple of sentences about our role in their care has worked well for me. Give it a try and see for yourself.

So happy World Radiography Day to all you hardworking Medical Imaging Professional's around the world!!

October 28 2017

The Changing Face of Professional Development

Welcome to my very first blog post!

I don't know about you, but CPD was never something I enjoyed doing. It was a necessity to keep my registration and making sure I had enough credits could be quite a stressful exercise! There were so many requirements around how many credits you could claim for certain activities, it was purely a numbers game for me. But this year the rules changed. I was anxious about the change, as the nature of change brings uncertainty. CPD had been done a certain way for a very long time. The thought of having to complete 60 hours of CPD over 3 years was daunting. I work part time, have a family and live in a regional centre where organised CPD activities are few and far between. I became very aware that I needed to be proactive in finding a way to make the new CPD guidelines work for me.

This is where I started looking more into online CPD activities. I decided to join Twitter after a discussion with my husband about how Teachers use it for professional development. I wasn't sure it was going to be the same for Medical Imaging but thought I'd give it go anyway. Well! I'm glad I listened to him. I started following accounts of institutions and journals I knew of and the twitterverse opened up a whole international community of Medical Imaging professionals that were sharing, collaborating, researching and networking. I know it sounds a bit cheesy but I was blown away but what I saw. The discussions people were having, the willingness to share ideas and resources. I didn't feel so isolated in my small city on the East Coast of NZ. I knew what was happening in my profession all over the world. I found so many online CPD resources that I didn't know what to do with them all! The logical answer was to create a website that acted as a hub, linking people to these resources I'd found through Twitter. So the MIT CPD Hub was born. Without even fully realising it, I was undertaking professional development. Constantly. I was seeking it out because the whole process was engaging. I created a template to record my activities and suddenly 60 hours in 3 years seemed not only do-able, but easy. I've developed what could be described as a passion for professional development through Twitter and online resources.

What I would love is to share this new found passion with my colleagues to help motivate them to see professional development as more than a requirement to be registered. It should be a lifelong journey. It doesn't just benefit us, it benefit's our workplace and our patients. Find a way to make CPD work for you. Find a way to make it engaging, to make you want to seek it out. Don't sit around waiting for the annual conference or study day to talk to other MRT's. Get on social media and actively participate. Find other people that share your interests and keep up to date with what's going on in the Medical Imaging world. You won't regret it.