Mung'omba Bernard, Botha Annali D H
Department of Health Studies, University of South Africa, South Africa; KZN Department of Health, Mosvold Hospital.
Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med. 2017 Aug 31;9(1):e1-e8. doi: 10.4102/phcfm.v9i1.1389.
Rural radiographers require, over and above traditional radiographic expertise, additional competencies which to a certain degree are unique however not limited to rural practice. Previous studies, however, have focused more attention primarily on other rural health professionals such as doctors and nurses leaving a research need in this field. This article focuses on the additional competencies that may be required for rural radiographers.
To investigate and identify additional core competencies required by radiographers working in rural hospitals of KwaZulu-Natal in order to propose a continuous professional development strategy aimed at rural radiographers.
An exploratory sequential design was utilised with qualitative (Phase I) and quantitative (Phase II) strands involving seven participants and 109 respondents, respectively. Only radiographers working in rural KwaZulu-Natal hospitals were included in the study. The four major themes and categories identified in Phase I were used to develop data collection instrument for Phase II of the study.
Collectively, the results revealed that there were a number of additional core competencies such as, but not limited to, teamwork, ability to do basic obstetric ultrasound scans, leadership, management and reporting on plain radiographs, all of which are required by rural radiographers. In 2014 when these competencies were checked against a single curriculum, it was found that majority of them were either partially covered or not at all covered.
The study provides additional information on context specific core competencies and, therefore, may act as a catalyst to influence the future of radiographers working in rural areas of South Africa.
农村放射技师除了需要传统的放射成像专业技能外，还需要具备一些额外的能力，这些能力在一定程度上是独特的，但不仅限于农村医疗实践。然而，以往的研究主要更关注其他农村卫生专业人员，如医生和护士，而在这一领域存在研究需求。本文聚焦于农村放射技师可能需要的额外能力。
调查并确定夸祖鲁 - 纳塔尔省农村医院放射技师所需的额外核心能力，以便为农村放射技师提出一项持续专业发展战略。
采用探索性序列设计，包括定性阶段（第一阶段）和定量阶段（第二阶段），分别涉及7名参与者和109名受访者。该研究仅纳入在夸祖鲁 - 纳塔尔省农村医院工作的放射技师。第一阶段确定的四个主要主题和类别被用于开发该研究第二阶段的数据收集工具。
总体而言，结果显示农村放射技师需要一些额外的核心能力，例如但不限于团队合作、进行基本产科超声扫描的能力、领导能力、管理能力以及对普通X光片的报告能力。2014年，当对照单一课程检查这些能力时，发现其中大多数能力要么部分涵盖，要么根本未涵盖。
该研究提供了关于特定背景下核心能力的更多信息，因此可能成为影响南非农村地区放射技师未来发展的催化剂。
