Patient and staff protection in different radiology modalities - Dissertation Example

The study concludes by offering recommendations to be applied by Jaber Al Ahmed Armed Forces Hospital in the efforts of advancing its practices involving radiology. Summary 1: An Examination of Factors Related To Radiation Protection Practices Introduction This study was carried out by Slechta & Reagan (2008) with an objective of advancing the understanding factors connected to knowledge of as well as adherence to safety practices in radiation in which they studied four independent variables.

These included initial education for the profession, participation in continuing education, the years of experience practicing in profession and nature of the work site. The study was aimed at advancing radiologic sciences education and practice while improving the safety practice in radiology. The study therefore sought to assess the knowledge of and compliance with protection practices in radiation in which independent variables and dependent variables were involved. The null hypothesis held in this study was that the independent variables were not significantly relatable to either of the dependent variables.

The study commenced with a literature review of materials related with practice compliance and radiographers’ education of five different indices of health and medicine. Notably, the literature reviewed indicated that certification in the 1970’s demanded radiation protection practices (Slechta & Reagan, 2008). The literatures also revealed trends of relationship between practicing years and radiation protection practice. A need for continued safety education was also noted in the literature reviewed in this study as well as efforts for ensuring continued education for the practitioners in radiography safety.

Methodology The study involved a survey of 2000 certified radiologic technologists through questionnaires sent t o each of them and allowed for a period of one month to fill and return. The sample was obtained from the database of the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT). The large sample (N = 2000) was selected through a simple random sampling of registrants’ summary data and characteristics. The large sample selected allowed for a high confidence level as well as a small margin error as respondent for mailing technique was expected to be low.

Questionnaire Design The questionnaire s sent to the sampled practitioners had 32 items to solicit information on basic demography, the 4 independent variables, and the 2 dependent variables (knowledge of and compliance with). Of the 32 items, 10 items sought for respondent’s characteristics information on gender, age, year of experience, years certified, professional practice primary area, work site type, initial education in radiologic technology, and continuing education participation over the past year.

A composite score was calculated sing knowledge of safety practice assessed by 3 multipart items. At the same time compliance was assessed with 19 items; 6of the items for composite score and 13 for separate evaluation. And Pre-tests were carried on 40 practitioners to determine usefulness of self-report of radiologic practices, time to complete the survey, item’s clarity assessment and development of scoring method. Results The results for respondents’ characteristics showed that, from the 2000 questionnaires sent, approximately 454 satisfied the surveys requirement.

Markedly, 18% (n =