The first three radiographers to achieve advanced practice accreditation in nuclear medicine via the NHS England e-portfolio route received their digital badges just months ago, prompting them to share how they did so.
Tristan Barnden is the lead superintendent radiographer for nuclear medicine at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, and is now also an accredited advanced clinical practitioner in nuclear medicine.
Mr Barnden emphasised the importance of recognition for radiographers, particularly as many of the roles undertaken within imaging are “equivalent” to more established advanced roles in other professions.
'We need time to do research'
“It makes it easier for the trust to understand the level of your practice,” he said. “That helps with setting out vicarious liability, understanding your autonomy. There’s now an understanding that we need time to do research, lead our profession and help it grow, so they’ve made time."
After completing an undergraduate degree in diagnostic radiography in 2004, Mr Barnden took the first steps to enhancing his role by undertaking a postgraduate degree in nuclear medicine in 2008.
He took his current position as lead superintendent in 2010.
Relieving pressure
Mr Barnden explained that in 2015, his trust identified a need for someone to undertake tasks traditionally carried out at the consultant level, which focused on cardiac stress testing for myocardial perfusion scintigraphy – using drugs to stress people's hearts into delivering radioactive tracers so that artery disease can be located.
In order to relieve pressures on colleagues and improve waiting times for patients, Mr Barnden and fellow radiographer Kim Bell undertook the postgraduate diploma in advanced medical imaging, specialising in cardiac stress testing.
Mr Barnden then went on to a reporting qualification at the University of the West of England, so he could report the results of the cardiac studies, and extend into other areas of best practice across clinical, education, leadership, and research pillars.
'Quite a broad scope'
It was only following these qualifications that Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells started a drive to identify radiographers working at advanced practice levels already.
Mr Barnden said: “These roles have been growing without anyone monitoring them, and they've been growing quite organically. We looked at how we would measure ourselves against other professionals. We had quite a broad scope. We looked to see how we could get that acknowledgement and accreditation without having to retake our Master’s qualifications.”
Mr Barnden and Ms Bell discovered the NHS England Centre for Advancing Practice “ePortfolio” route.
This route entailed a lecturer from a nominated university looking through their education and experience to advise if they could progress and what further training was needed.
ePortfolio for advancing practice
“It’s quite a long process,” Mr Barnden added. “You have to evidence all the capabilities of advanced practice through your education examples, getting validation of your work from other healthcare professionals, and then writing along a long critical narrative outlining how your practice meets all these core standards. It took us about a year.
“It’s really valuable. It’s not an easy step, but if we want our profession to carry on growing, it’s a step we need to take. You get better with every step you take. We’ve definitely seen benefits of the role to our patients. Our waiting times are less, our patient satisfaction is really high, because we’re not dependent on a small set of consultants. We diversified that workforce.”
He went on to explain the ePortfolio route is aimed at radiographers who have already been working in advanced practice roles, as a means to offer re-affirmation of the level of practice. The ePortfolio allows radiographers to validate previous learning and experience.
To find out more about the ePortfolios route to accreditation in advanced practice, click here.
(Image: Tristan Barnden and Kim Bell)