Title: Radiography Education: the current and future picture in Arab Countries Mohamed Abuzaid. Assistant Professor, University of Sharjah, Medical Diagnostic Imaging Department, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, P.O.Box:27272. Fax +971-6-5057515 e-mail:
[email protected]
Radiographers, also known as Radiologic Technologists, Diagnostic Radiographers, and Medical Radiation Technologists are healthcare professionals who specialize in the imaging of human anatomy for the diagnosis and treatment of pathology. A career in radiography needs various skills starting with excellent communication skills, professionalism, integrity, critical thinking, problem-solving. The current radiographer practice in the Arab Countries in term of education, skills, job status, job description and the future perspective in comparison to an international organization and other countries practice need to be identified and planned with the international standards and promises. Arab countries currently consists of the 22 Arabic-speaking countries occupy an area stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast. Attempting to understand the various professional qualifications in many Arab countries was very difficult, as there is no organization to regulate this profession. There is apparently lack of co-operation and communication between universities, schools offering radiography education and training. A simple web search for societies or associations for radiographer in Arab countries will end with the deceptive result that there is no dedicated radiographer organization body; few Facebook pages represent personal or regional academic or social activities. International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technologist (ISRRT) website showed the regional coordinator; only three Arab countries represented (Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia). Importance of such body in additional to profession organization, conducting educational workshops, conferences, Continuing Medical Education (CME), Continuing Professional Development (CPD), supports the profession rights, undertake various activities through its role as a non-governmental organization in official relations with an international organization. It is imperative to formulate body able to review the status of radiography professions in term of legal, administration, standard qualifications and skills to practice. Such organization body will be able to formulate forum to discuss education and regulation matters directly affecting professional practice, facilitate the link with international and other national organization, and provide support, education and training program to the radiography professionals.
It is noticed that the majority of universities and institutes in Arab countries deliver a Bachelor’s degree with four years study duration. Still some countries offer three-year diploma in some institutes which directly managed by Ministry of health. The graduates work in Medical Imaging, Radiotherapy, and Nuclear Medicine. To work in Ultrasound, a postgraduate degree or clinical experiences is required in most of the countries where still some countries were not allowed for the radiographers to work in ultrasound imaging. Most of the graduates were identified competent to work in general radiography, portable, Operation Theatre (OT), fluoroscopy, dental and mammography. Regarding Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), there was noticeable variation in the study program as well as graduate competencies. Most of the program offers clinical practice during the study period ranged from 500 to 1550 clinical training hours, whereas some program established a one-year internship program at the last year of study. Licensing of radiographer to practice organized by different stockholders, not by professional bodies. It varies from no licensing exam for the graduates who obtained their degree from local universities, require a licensing exam for every radiography profession who would like to practice and some waived the practicing review for the radiographers who obtained a licensing practice in USA, UK and selected other countries. Radiography postgraduate studies in Arab countries are currently presented at two countries Sudan “five universities” and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia “two universities.” Although postgraduate programs in Sudan started early, 2000 it is clear that these programs are not able to attract international students and or exceed the national area. Future challenges In order to improve the current status of radiography profession many challenges should be taken into account: 1- Radiographer competency; Medical imaging become advance; no person can be able to cover all practice area. However, the integration of technology in work encourage the deep knowledge and provide a high level of clinical services. Radiographers should be able to determine their competency area to provide comprehensive service, to integrate this advancement. 2- Research; research in radiology is an integral part of clinical and physics research domain. It is obvious the lack of research output by radiographer which can be due to many reasons such as; lack of research skills, lack of support from radiologists and administrative, workload, awareness of research importance. A policy to improve
research culture should be adopted by universities and professional bodies; individuals should be motivated, educated and trained to participate in research. 3- As low as reasonably achievable (ALARA); radiographers considered the key person in radiation protection and patient safety, it’s very important to understand how to apply ALARA to protect patients and other personnel when working in radiation and to be aware of ways to reduce the level of radiation exposure. It takes the effort to implement the ALARA principles successfully. 4- Expand the radiographer work role: Image Interpretation equips radiographers with the skills to interpret radiological images correctly. Many countries worldwide “UK, Australia, Denmark, Norway, etc.” study the ability of radiographers to do image reporting. In UK designed program and system to prepare the radiographer for the image, reporting is currently integrated at the National Health Services (NHS). Radiographer’s accurateness and confidence in participating in Preliminary clinical evaluation (PCE) and definitive reporting need huge effort and collaboration among universities, professional bodies, and health institute.
