HeartUnions Week honours the work of trade unions and the reps who support them. Hear from Zoe Hunt who advocates for radiographers within healthcare.
Zoe Hunt became an SoR rep in 2015, around seven years into her radiography career. She had always felt passionate about promoting radiography, but was inspired to train as a rep after learning more about policies at the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust where she works.
"I found that a lot of our trust policies were very nurse and doctor related, and so they weren't necessarily suitable to be used in the radiography departments because it's a completely unique area,” she explained. “I wanted to make sure that I was in a position that I could advocate the changes that were needed so that the staff could get the best they can from their profession and their jobs, because they work so hard to get the best they can.
“I wanted to ensure that as a team, we had a voice within our department.”
Accumulating achievements
Zoe also feels compelled to support the array of roles within radiography as she knows how taxing they can be.
She said: “I feel really passionate about supporting my colleagues, whether they're radiographers, sonographers or assistants, because all those roles in those radiography departments are really demanding.”
As a rep, over the years Zoe has accomplished several professional feats. These include increasing waiting list payments for assistants - which resulted in a large payout from the trust - and working on documents with the support of the SoR.
“There was a document written about protected rest time in regards to the working time directive, which the society helped me with. We also rewrote the annual leave document for radiology to make sure everybody had fair access to annual leave,” she said.
In doing this, she has subsequently built positive relationships with staff and management teams within the trust. This has allowed Zoe to carry out necessary partnership work there.
But just as importantly, Zoe has had the opportunity to help SoR members in more personal ways.
“There have been members that I've helped through certain areas, such as patient complaints, taking ill health retirement, being part of their sickness meetings, and returning from maternity leave,” she explains. “There has been lots of interesting stuff that I've been able to personally help people with on a one-to-one basis, as well as the bigger things that have taken a group of people.”
Transferable skills
Outside of her role as a rep, Zoe splits her time between working as a sonographer at Kidderminster Treatment Centre and lecturing in medical ultrasound at Birmingham City University. She says that being a rep is a great addition to your career as the training offers opportunities to build transferable skills.
“I'm able to transfer a lot of the skills that I learned from repping and being supported to do things - like resilience training that was put on for the reps - to be able to help me with my own organisation skills, with being able to see things from different perspectives,” she continues.
“It's enhanced my own career.”
To learn about the different types of SoR rep roles and how to become a rep, click here.