The Society and College of Radiographers, 207 Providence Square, Mill Street, London, SE1 2EW, UK.
Radiography (Lond). 2020 Feb;26(1):3-8. doi: 10.1016/j.radi.2019.09.005. Epub 2019 Oct 3.
The United Kingdom has a sonographer shortage. Health Education England are working with stakeholders to address these shortages and increase clinical capacity for sonographer education. The aims of this survey were to ascertain current sonographer staffing levels, estimate staffing requirements in five years' time and review current clinical placement capacity.
An on-line survey was used to explore the aims of the study. Questions included current and predicted sonographer staffing requirements and clinical capacity for teaching ultrasound. Free text comments were available for expanding on responses.
Of 72 completed responses the mean sonographer vacancy rate was 2.65 and the predicted number of sonographers needed to provide the service in five years was 4.6. Departments were teaching an average of two sonographers and 2 non-sonographers. A small number of departments had further capacity for sonography student training which was not being utilised for reasons including limited capacity, inadequate staffing levels or competing demands of teaching other health care professionals. Extended working days and weekend training lists were used to increase capacity, along with rolling programmes for teaching sonographers and the use of simulation.
The survey supported previous publications that have shown sonographer shortages in England and this is predicted to increase over the next five years. Departments were teaching a similar number of sonographers as other health care professionals. Many experienced competing demands, which challenged their ability to increase clinical capacity.
Suggestions for increasing capacity are provided to help grow the sonography workforce. With the advent of new sonography programmes the departments with spare capacity could be utilised to support clinical practice for sonography students in need of a placement on a direct entry programme.
英国存在超声医师短缺的问题。英格兰卫生与保健署正在与利益相关者合作，以解决这些短缺问题并增加超声医师教育的临床能力。本次调查旨在确定当前的超声医师人员配备水平，估计五年后的人员配备需求，并审查当前的临床实习能力。
采用在线调查来探讨研究目的。问题包括当前和预测的超声医师人员配备需求以及超声教学的临床能力。可提供自由文本注释以扩展对回复的描述。
在 72 份已完成的回复中，平均超声医师空缺率为 2.65%，预计未来五年内所需的超声医师人数为 4.6 名。各部门平均为 2 名超声医师和 2 名非超声医师提供教学。少数部门有进一步的超声学生培训能力，但由于容量有限、人员配备不足或其他医疗保健专业人员教学的竞争需求等原因，这些能力没有得到利用。延长工作日和周末培训名单被用于增加容量，同时还开展了超声医师滚动教学计划和模拟教学。
该调查支持了之前发表的研究，表明英国的超声医师短缺问题，并预计在未来五年内将增加。各部门教授的超声医师数量与其他医疗保健专业人员相似。许多部门面临着相互竞争的需求，这给他们增加临床能力的能力带来了挑战。
为增加容量提供了建议，以帮助扩大超声医师队伍。随着新的超声课程的出现，具有剩余容量的部门可以被利用来支持有直接进入课程安置需求的超声学生的临床实习。
