What have you learnt through completing this activity: Continuing Professional Development, TCD, Ireland

activity?

achieved

What have you learnt through completing this activity? How have your skills and knowledge improved or developed?

How have you integrated this learning into your practice? How has this learning made a difference to your capability and performance in your role?

1.5

From undertaking this course I have learned about my legal responsibilities under the Children First Act 2015

·         My role in Safeguarding Children

·         How to recognise if a child is being abused

·         The procedure to follow if reporting child abuse

·         The Role of a designated officer and the role of the Mandated person listed in the Act.

·         How to safeguard best practice for children

I now have a good comprehension of the steps involved if any concerns arise and I am familiar with the roles of all of those involved in dealing with such a situation.

This course was 12 hours

I learned about the pharmacological and physiological principles of contrast media. I was also provided with the information to allow me to identify when a patient is at risk or has an anaphylaxis or adverse event to contrast media.

I learned about the IV best practice guidelines and this incorporated how to establish or implement a protocol for IV cannulation and administration and also the medico legal considerations with IV injections.

On Day 2 I learned about the patient safety and infection control precautions associated with IV injection. I then learned all of the

practical aspects associated with carrying out injections.

The course has also provided me with an insight into the use of contrast media in Radiation therapy which was something I was not familiar with and has led me to working collaboratively with my Radiation Therapy colleagues on updating our departmental IV cannulation and administration protocols . Using the course information I have learned a lot from the best practice guidelines and medico legal considerations I feel I have built on previous knowledge as well as gained skills to critically analyse and effectively scrutinise our protocols. This has facilitated me with the knowledge to update these protocols and to ensure they are in accordance with the most up to date evidence based practice working in accordance with my Code of Professional Conduct.

03.04. 2020

30 Hours

(DRL’s). I became familiar with how to calculate local DRL’s at our site. In doing so I

the radiographers in the department. I delivered a presentation during a CPD session outlining the

2

I learned a lot about the importance of establishing local DRL’s and why it is important to compare them to previous results to identify if there are any trends. By doing this I was able to identify any improvements that could be made.

During this audit I improved my knowledge of the new legislation (SI256). Establishing DRL’s is now a requirement under Irish law so it was imperative that I was up to date with this legislation.

I gained a better understanding of CT exposure parameters and how they contribute to radiation dose.

I read several journal articles on ways to reduce radiation dose by adjusting the parameters.

I also improved my communication skills during this audit. I wrote a 20 page audit report comparing the results for 2019 with previous results. In doing so I improved my understanding of the audit cycle.

Furthermore I gave a presentation to my department on the results of this audit. This also helped improve my presentation and communication skills.

I have also created a poster for the department which demonstrates the trends in radiation dose in CT over the past 5 years. This helped my colleagues and I become more dose aware as we could visualise the improvements we had made to radiation dose over the years.

From this process I am much more dose conscious. I always strive to compare the predicated radiation to the local DRL before I expose the patient. I can then aim to make any adjustments necessary to ensure the dose is as low as reasonably achievable. I am aware however that sometimes the dose will exceed the local DRL and this is acceptable in some cases once I have optimised the exposure.

9 week course 1-2

hours/week

I learned a lot form this course as it covered a wide range of topics concerning the management of people. Three key learning areas for me were managing change, managing conflict and managing performance. These topics were covered across several modules. A detailed explanation of how to implement change in a department was outlined. I feel the strategies suggested to assist in implementing change (e.g. PDSA, Kotter’s change model) were relevant and applicable to a health care department.

Furthermore, I feel that this module addressed obstacles to change and outlined strategies for dealing with these obstacles.

The modules on managing conflict were extremely informative and again I feel it will be very useful information to draw on in the future. I specifically found that understanding the underlying issues that can lead to conflict to be very insightful. I feel that by understanding these factors I will be better able to deal with conflict should it arise. Furthermore, I also gained a better awareness of strategies on how to deal with conflict.

Finally, a large emphasis was placed on performance management in this course. I gained a great awareness of the importance of

performance management and how it can be

The knowledge I gained on this course was hugely advantageous. I use my conflict resolution skills when dealing with complaints.

I also established a formalised performance review process in my department. This would not have been possible without the knowledge I gained on this course.

2 hour webinar

in optimum imaging for the patient.