Diagnostic Radiography - your questions answered! video transcript

 

My area, diagnostic imaging, includes a  number of programmes that lead to qualification as a radiographer or a sonographer and various different options for study after that once you're a qualified professional. So this course  is for people who want to become a diagnostic radiographer and work in the health service as a qualified diagnostic radiographer.

 

Radiographers carry out X-rays, CT scans, MRI scans, ultrasound  and a range of other imaging modalities.  

So on this course, our students use our wonderful  facilities down in the clinical skill suite where we have an X-ray room, an image reporting room, an ultrasound simulation room, an ultrasound scan room, theatre suite and board areas and right from the first week on the course the students are down there doing simulation activities.

 

The benefit to  the students of using these facilities is they're getting practical hands-on experience without  having to think about a patient being in front of them so they can practice their technical skills in a safe environment as many times as they like. It's absolutely representative of what they'll see out in healthcare here in the UK.  

On this programme there are a huge amount of  opportunities to undertake clinical placement, in  fact, you have to undertake clinical placements in our partner hospitals to actually pass the course and qualify as a diagnostic radiographer, so for that reason placement is 50% of the programme.  

So a whole host of skills will be developed, there'll be the technical skills to actually perform radiographic techniques and scans but they'll also be the patient side of it as well, looking after our patients which is a key passion of mine actually and a key area of my research.  

So the course prepares students for a career as a radiographer by first and foremost giving them the knowledge and skills necessary to qualify as a diagnostic radiographer but it also prepares them in terms of the transferable skills they need to be a radiographer. So time management, communication, working with a multi-disciplinary team, working shifts as part of their placement so that they understand how shift systems work when they qualify and start working in the NHS.  

So the students will be taught by the diagnostic imaging team here at the university, all of which are qualified diagnostic radiographers by profession and are registered with the HCPS,  the Health and Care Professions Council.

 

Lots of  the team are currently engaged in doctoral-level study so we have a very active research community within the diagnostic imaging team and that feeds into national policy and practice for radiography and sonography. So that benefits the students because they're getting cutting-edge, up-to-date teaching based in absolutely best practice.  

What makes the radiography course here at the University of Derby different is our commitment to our students, and our commitment to simulation as a key teaching approach is an absolute cornerstone of everything we do and we think that's important because ultimately we'll produce graduates with the highest  calibre of radiography and sonography skills.