Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia.
Hospital Wanita Dan Kanak-Kanak Kuala Lumpur, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Pahang, Kuala Lumpur 50586, Malaysia.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 May 21;19(10):6260. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19106260.
When exposed to equal radiation doses, the risks for children and adolescents are more significant than for adults. Children grow quickly, and their cells are more sensitive to radiation. After radiation exposure, children have a higher risk of developing malignancies such as leukemia, thyroid abnormalities, and various types of cancers. The healthcare professionals' (in this context referring to medical doctors at all levels) awareness of imaging modalities associated with ionizing radiation is essential to ensure optimal patient management of cooperation in dealing with radiation exposure. Therefore, the present study is aimed to evaluate the awareness of healthcare professionals on medical imaging-related radiation exposure in the pediatric population in our center, Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted among healthcare professionals using self-administered validated questionnaires in a university hospital for a duration of seven months. Healthcare professionals of all levels participated in this survey.
A total of 145 healthcare professionals participated in this study. More than half of the respondents are house officers, 57.2% ( = 83). Results indicated that only 6 out of 145 healthcare professionals who participated in this survey had attended a radiation protection course. This survey showed that 37.2% of the respondents were unaware that chest radiographs would expose patients to ionizing radiation. Finally, results also indicated that senior doctors (21 out of 24 participants) showed better awareness of radiation protection knowledge.
In general, healthcare professionals in our institution are inadequate in awareness of medical radiation exposure, particularly among house officers. However, the awareness of radiation safety and exposure improves with the number of years of clinical practice. We propose that some younger healthcare professionals do not take radiation safety seriously. Moreover, we would like to suggest all healthcare professionals must attend a radiation safety course, as we expect this will improve patient outcomes.
儿童和青少年在接受同等辐射剂量时，风险比成年人更高。儿童生长迅速，细胞对辐射更为敏感。暴露于辐射后，儿童罹患白血病、甲状腺异常和各种癌症等恶性肿瘤的风险更高。医疗保健专业人员（在此上下文中是指各级别的医生）对与电离辐射相关的成像方式的认识对于确保儿童患者的最佳管理以及在处理辐射暴露方面的合作至关重要。因此，本研究旨在评估我们中心马来西亚国民大学医药中心的医疗保健专业人员对儿科人群医学影像相关辐射暴露的认识。
在一家大学医院，使用自行设计的经过验证的问卷对医疗保健专业人员进行了横断面调查，调查持续了七个月。所有级别的医疗保健专业人员都参与了这项调查。
共有 145 名医疗保健专业人员参与了这项研究。超过一半的受访者是住院医师，占 57.2%（=83）。结果表明，在参与这项调查的 145 名医疗保健专业人员中，只有 6 人参加过辐射防护课程。这项调查显示，37.2%的受访者不知道胸部 X 光检查会使患者暴露在电离辐射下。最后，结果还表明，高级医生（24 名参与者中的 21 名）对辐射防护知识的认识较好。
总的来说，我们机构的医疗保健专业人员对医疗辐射暴露的认识不足，尤其是住院医师。然而，随着临床实践年限的增加，对辐射安全和暴露的认识也会提高。我们认为，一些年轻的医疗保健专业人员对辐射安全不够重视。此外，我们建议所有医疗保健专业人员都必须参加辐射安全课程，因为我们期望这将改善患者的预后。
