Current Situation

The beginning of semester 2 of 4th year. This is my plan of action for my PDP. My aim for development is to continue to get as much hands on experience within the general department as possible. I still feel I haven’t had enough practice in adapting my technique in difficult situations. Although I had more of an opportunity in the last clinical block, I still feel I need more. There was one very busy week with very little staff on my last clinical block and I was allowed to carry out most examinations on my own without any interventions from other staff. This allowed me to perform examinations without feeling intimidated or nervous and this helped to increase my confidence.
However there are still examinations that I shy away from because I feel I am unable to perform them as well as some other examinations but this is an area that I am determined to work on.

Ideal Situation

An ideal situation would be to have the same opportunity again, especially because I have my fit to practice very soon. Confidence is a big problem for me and when I am working along side a member of staff that doesn’t know me I know it is going to take time before they allow me to work on my own. I like to perform the complete examination, from checking the patients previous history, to cleaning the room at the end. I feel this allows me to get into a routine knowing everything has been done. I enjoy working with others and completely understand when someone is helping me, however because our clinical placement are in blocks and you continually work with different staff members, I feel establishing a routine and being allowed to continually perform it helps to cement good practice and remove the possibility of errors.
My action plan for next block is to establish and maintain a routine that works for me and to tackle projections that I am not comfortable with, mainly axial shoulders, lateral scapulas and horizontal beam hips. I continually get told I am a good radiographer however until I feel I can perform to the level I think is acceptable then my confidence will always be low.

Steps to success

• Continue to have as much hands on within the general department.
• Tackle all examination that I am not confident in performing to help increase my performance and confidence.
• Perform more examinations that allows more hands on which allows me to adapt techniques.

Overall Completion Date

01 April 2011

SWOT analysis

Strengths

My strength is that I love the job and I strive to be as good as I can be. I as love the interaction with the patients and I am friendly and good at chatting to patients in a difficult situations.

Weaknesses

My biggest weakness is my confidence. Even though I know I am capable of most things that are asked of me I still question my ability. I know this will increase over time however with the little clinical time we receive it is difficult as there is never enough time to perform everything you would like to. My confidence begins to rise just as we are finishing our clinical placements.

Opportunities

On my last block I am at Queen Margaret Hospital. I would like to use this week to work alongside a member of staff who will advise and supervise me while I am performing the examinations I don’t feel comfortable with, mainly axial shoulders, lateral scapulas and horizontal beam hips, so I can overcome my nerves when performing them.

Threats

Threats to this situation can be working alongside a member of staff who interacts when you are performing an examination. This could be them checking your positioning of the patient. Some staff move the patient from there original position and then put them back to exactly the same position you had them in. Some radiographers do that through habit and are aware of it and apologise, however some do it all the time and don’t acknowledge they have done the exact same thing as you had done and this can be frustrating as a student. It also knocks your confidence and you end up questioning your ability, especially if your working alongside someone that does it continually.

Supporting Resources

Books / journals

Carver and Carver.
Clarks.

Web links

http://www.wikiradiography.com
http://www.e-radiography.net

Electronic resources

Presentations

Reflection

I have just finished my very last placement as a student. On reflection I feel I have had a very productive year. I also feel my confidence has increased dramatically over this last year, allowing me to gain the confidence to perform my “confidence to practice” in an out of hours placement. I really enjoy tackling the challenges of A & E situations as well as the challenges required for dealing with trauma patients which require me to think about the technicalities required when performing some examinations.
I also like the fact that as my confidence increases I relax and enjoy the job more. I do release I have so much more to learn and I look forward to doing this in the future.

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