The working week of a radiographer/sonographer

I am a radiographer / sonographer currently working in two roles: 50%  radiography education and 50% product development for a major imaging systems manufacturer. In the past I have had a varied career working as a radiographer, sonographer, Academic Programme Leader, Modality Team lead and ultrasound Clinical Applications Specialist. Here is a summary of my week:

Monday

Monday is my university day and today I travelled the 120 mile round trip to our department. August and September is a busy time preparing for the next academic year. In the morning I met with the Director of studies to talk about assessments, met with the IT technician to get support for some videos I wanted to use within my modules, walked to a local hospital to discuss guest lecturing with a specialist clinician who could add value to the teaching on one of my modules. In the afternoon I had to locate the ultrasound equipment in the basement and prepare that ready for teaching the next intake of students. Between meetings I caught up on emails and continued with preparation of material for the academic year, such a handbooks, lectures and interactive quizzes.

Tuesday

On Tuesday I split my day, in the morning I work in product development and my afternoon is spent working for the university. 

In the morning we always have a meeting with our developers abroad to discuss progress on current projects and future ideas. This meeting is very much engineer led and I am the clinical member of the team. My role is to advise on implications for patient work flow. After the meeting I catch up with clinical colleagues to update them on the meeting and discuss tasks for the week. 

Only one more meeting this morning – phew! It is a very pleasant one with an intern that I am supervising. His project is coming to an end and I help him to consolidate his presentation. 

A few emails and catching up on recordings of important meetings that I missed and it is lunchtime and time to change roles.

University time, working from home, consists of lecture preparation. I like to be ahead of time with preparation, as once the students return most of my time will be taken up with teaching and student interactions.

Wednesday

This is a University day where I am fortunate to be working from home. I have an early morning meeting with another clinical colleague to discuss teaching on my modules, followed by more preparation interspersed with planning meetings with my colleagues. 

On my working from home days I always try to make sure I get some exercise, so off I go for a lunchtime walk to clear away the cobwebs.

In the afternoon I have a “teams” meeting with a third year student whose dissertation I am supervising and prepare my paperwork for my Personal Development Review which is due next week.

At the end of the day I sign off my university brain for the week.

Thursday

Today is a busy product development day as we have a deadline to meet for the developers and our interns are presenting their projects this afternoon so I need to put my head down to ensure I have the time attend. I also have my fortnightly 1:1 with my clinical line manager to plan for.

My day is spent researching, trying to be inventive and putting this together in a presentation whilst ensuring I present clinical matters in a way the engineers can understand. 

I manage to make the interns meeting and it was amazing to see the enthusiasm and high quality of the work these young people have produced.

Friday

My clinical colleague is off on Fridays so this is usually a busy day for me. I continue with my development research, however I also need to support the engineers on clinical matters so the day is interspersed with clinical reviews and triage sessions where I test software and assist with decisions regarding user and patient interactions with the software developments.

At 3pm we have our ultrasound team “Stand – up” meeting where we meet and talk about the progress we have made to date on our projects. It is good to talk as a team of clinical staff and engineers and I really enjoy the open and honest nature of working in this environment. 

One last meeting of the week at 3.30pm where we meet as a company to share our lives either personal or something that has induced enthusiasm throughout the week.

After sending my weekly report to our managers and directors I log off and say goodbye to another busy week in two roles I love that are both different and complimentary. Roles which are nothing like I thought I would ever be lucky enough to be part of when I started my life as a student radiographer back in the days.