Radiographer
Chelsea is a Radiographer at a major trauma hospital where she scans patients experiencing all sorts of pains and problems and diagnoses their conditions to fit their appropriate treatment.
“The images I take allow me to diagnose a patient’s condition and I communicate that to other health professionals so they can accurately treat them.”
What a Radiographer does
I take diagnostic images of a body region to answer a clinical question. Essentially, I take photos and scans of body parts so that health professionals can see where a patient is having problems and figure out what they can do to treat them. I pick up on things that they may or may not be looking for and use pathology (the causes and effects of injuries and diseases). The images I take allow me to diagnose a patient’s condition and I communicate that to other health professionals so they can accurately treat them.
The radiology department is split into different imaging modalities like:
CT (computed tomography): Uses computers and rotating machines to image cross-sections of the body. Images includes more detailed parts like soft tissues, blood vessels etc.*
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging): Uses strong magnetitic fields and radio waves to generate signals from the body. Useful for diagnosing tumours, joint injuries or internal organ damage without X-ray radiation**
Fluoroscopy: An imaging technique that shows objects moving in real time through the body.
Eg. A patient swallows a marshmallow covered in solution (barium which is radio-opaque) that allows a radiographer to see where the marshmallow is going inside the body
Ultrasound: Think of that black and white image of a baby inside their mum
General X-ray
With a broad number of medical specialisations at a major trauma hospital, there’s a lot of unpredictability. Life-threatening cases are often flown in by helicopters because they’ll know that the relevant specialists will be able to help which makes the job dynamic. I’ve never had a mundane day at work and it keeps me on my feet but that’s what I like about it—No patient’s ever the same and I never get bored. I could be doing five CT scans in a row on five different patients and all those scans will have a different outcome. I’m always learning and adapting.
For example, if an ambulance brings a patient who has just been in a motor vehicle accident, emergency doctors will assess the patient and then page me to do a chest or pelvis X-ray to rule out any pathology in the chest and fractures in the pelvis. I’d also do a CT scan to see if there’s active bleeding anywhere. Depending on what I’m X-raying, I work with a lot of other health professionals so knowing what everyone’s roles are is important so that we can work well together and not overstep or underestimate each other.
Helping people take real selfies
Behind the scenes, if you imagine what a photographer does to capture a photo, that’s what I do. I adapt to the situation to ensure the scan I’m taking is appropriate with balance and contrast. I alter radiation doses relevant to a patient’s body size and ensure the image I take with radiation is the correct and appropriate amount to showcase the patient’s anatomy. You could say that radiographers are professional photographers of the human body.
More than just a job
There isn’t a right or wrong answer for what makes something meaningful. What makes my job meaningful to me is knowing that a scan I’ve done has contributed to a patient’s treatment trajectory or outcome. My scan is the reason a doctor decides on whether a fracture is healing well, if a surgery went well or if it’s time to discharge a patient. Patient care and being an all-rounder in anatomy are what I’ve always looked for in a profession.
What makes the stress from my job worthwhile is that I can feel that I’ve contributed to something to alleviate someone’s pain regardless of how big I may think that may be. I’m not just doing my work to get paid, it’s so much bigger than that.
Someone who would thrive as a Radiographer
Personality-wise, it doesn’t matter if you’re loud or quiet, as long as you’re professional. Being a self-reflective learner is important in health because it’s not just about how talented you are technically, you never stop learning. You need to have attention to detail as we X-ray a lot of things and sometimes a patient might not inform you about a pain but they might actually have a subtle fracture that they’re not aware of so being able to spot that is important. It’s a combination of anatomical knowledge and being good with technology as radiographers constantly need to adapt to new machinery. Half the job is adapting to the patient, to the situation, and to the equipment.
Empathy is essential
With anything in health you need to have empathy. It’s not just about how well you studied. I’ve seen bookish people struggle with interacting and connecting with patients because they don’t have the strongest set of people skills. Empathy is important because I don’t want a patient to feel like they’re just another patient, that they’re my twentieth patient of the day. I want them to feel like I’m treating and talking to them as a human being. Patient communication skills and self-awareness of verbal and non-verbal cues are key. This includes: how I introduce myself, the way I greet them, explaining things before I scan them, letting them know what’s happening and answering questions without rushing.
“Create goals. When you have direction, no matter how difficult something is, you will do what you need to do to get there. There are absolutely no rules or timelines for how and when you should decide by but once you know what you like, just hone in on that.”
A process of elimination
I always knew early on that I liked anatomy, it just clicked with me and never felt like rote learning. I always liked science out of all the subjects in high school so when it came to narrowing down options it was a process of elimination. I knew I loved learning everything about anatomy from head to toe and wanted to use my knowledge of both surface and internal anatomy. I would consider myself very fortunate to have found something that I knew I wanted to do earlier on. I knew in Year 10 that I wanted to pursue radiography but with saying that, there is no pressure to know what you want to do in high school.
Plan A, B and C
I studied a Bachelor of Health Sciences, majoring in Anatomy and Histology and a Master of Diagnostic Radiography.
Even though I knew what I wanted, it wasn’t easy. I didn’t get into the Bachelor of Diagnostic Radiography course by a couple of points so my plan B was to study health sciences and re-apply in second year. I didn’t get in on my second attempt so my plan C was to get into the postgraduate radiography course because by then I had completed two out of three years of my health sciences degree.
Despite taking three years to get into radiography, even though I don’t need to know every single thing about anatomy for radiography, it’s helped so much for my conceptual knowledge of different regions of the body.
Goals, goals and more goals
Create goals. When you have direction, no matter how difficult something is, you will do what you need to do to get there. There are absolutely no rules or timelines for how and when you should decide by but once you know what you like, just hone in on that.
There were some openings for training positions at my hospital last year and as I like my cardiovascular anatomy, I’m currently training in cardio cath lab (catheterisation laboratory) which is imaging for procedures of the heart.
If I do go back to studying, I would want to upskill in sonography and as my end goal, become a cardiac sonographer, someone who does ultrasounds specifically for the heart. It’s not set in stone but I’m at a point where I just want to be a better health professional in my own way, whether that’s through extra study, self-reflection on techniques or reading more articles. Whatever shapes me into becoming a better radiographer and that also comes with experience.