A Lesson About my Profession || by @rad-austine

Introduction:

Hello friends, greetings to you all, how are you people doing, i hope you all are doing great, i am so glad to be here today, to discuss with you, all base on this unique topic: A lesson about my profession it's an interesting title because, we all have a career, job, business or even as an apprentice learning a skill.

All profession are unique since it's contribute to the growth an development of our great nation, every questions about the given topic, is well explained with illustrations, in a very simplify ways, cheers as you read on.

Introduce yourself and tell us your profession or your skills.

My name is Austine Ifeanyi Emeka, i am 27yrs old, from Enugu state, Nsukka local government area, here in Nigeria, i graduated from the University of Calabar in Radiography department, 2019.

I am a Medical Radiographer also known as an imaging scientist, by profession, i am currently working at Alex ekwueme federal University teaching hospital, (AEFUTHA) in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state.

My usual name is @rad-austine, which means Radiographer Austine.
Now let me briefly tell you people the functions of a Radiographer in a hospital, using simple terms and explaination.

A Radiographer is an imaging scientist that work with ionizing equipment, such as X-ray, computed tomography machine (CT) and non ionizing equipment such magnetic resonance imaging machine, (MRI) ultrasound scan machine etc to produce cross sectional image of the body for for medical purpose. These machines produce cross section image which means, internal image of the body without dissection.

If you have visited a hospital the person that dispense X-ray ionizing radiation using X-ray machine the person is simply an imaging scientist also know as Radiographer.

What will you like to teach us?

Radiographers are medical personnel, so i will teach you people, about health, saving of human life, which is very vital, because life is the, most precious thing which money can not buy.

Radiographers work with a lot of modalities, such as computed tomography CT, magnetic resonance imaging MRI, fluroscopy, mammography machine, all these machines have their various functions and produce different types of images, but not all tertiary hospital have most of these equipments in Nigeria, because there are very expensive modalities worth millions of naira.

Also i will like to teach you steemians about the most common modalities use by Radiographer in Most hospital in Nigeria which are X-ray machine and ultrasound scan machine.

X-ray machine

X-ray machine is used to take internal imaging of the body for medical reasons, such as fracture, to detect pathologies like cadiomegaly, for theater purposes that is before surgical operation.

X-ray have a lot of components such as X-ray tube, control console, erect bulky patient table etc. processing room.

Procedure for X-ray examination

That was an examination carry-out for a patient that had gun shut injury on the femur, that was on Sunday when i was on call duty. The patient was bleeding, profusely, an he was in pain, he had lost a lot of blood, so care need to be taken to minimize pain.

That was the patient Dad try to calm down the his son, just to comfort him, so that we can have a good image of the affected region.

Since it's an emergency patient, one needs to be careful to minimize the Patient pain , i place the patient on the patient table, after positioning of the patient, i select my exposure factors, set my cassette then i exposed the patient. My colleague was positioning the patient, for the examination, while i was busy selecting an exposure factors, so as to facilitate the procedure.

From the above image you can see the bullet, with the aid of the Radiograph, it's will then be easy to remove the bullet through surgical operation on the femur, since there was no fracture of the bone.

After exposure of the patient, i then process the the film, in processing of film to Radiograph, one needs to be careful not to cut off vital area on the Radiograph, after processing, print the film, I ensure i include patient information on the Radiograph for easy identification, then i forward the Radiograph for the radiologist to report it.

Patient on oxygen

From the image above the patient is critically sick, she was on oxygen, she needs an x-ray before the doctor can commence surgical operation for her.

This is another emergency case
The patient is on oxygen it's a very critical case because it's matter of life or death, the same procedure is still applicable but here one has to be very fast in carrying out the examination, because of the patient condition. Medical Radiographer is a nice profession, because it's contribute to saving of life, it's the eyes of medicine.

Ultrasound scan machine

This modalities is use to monitor pregnancy growth because it has no radiation, to harm the developing fetus also it's use to detect a lot of pathology, such as fibroids, appendicitis, hepatomegaly etc,

Ultrasound scan machine have a lot of components, to be a very good sonographer, one needs to know anatomy and pathology very well, so as to avoid mis-diagnosis, one needs to go on further training, to have PGD after getting a degree from the University.

From the above image the patient is position for an ultrasound examination, for a routine check-up of her pregnancy, if there is any abnormality.

Ultrasound scan has no effect of radiation dose to a developing fetus, an no pain to the patient.

So i believe i have passed out a lot knowledge about health, because as human, we all need health care system, from the above image of the patient with gunshot injury, through the Radiograph, it's will be easy to remove the bullet through surgical operation.

Why do we need to acquire this knowledge that you have passed?

We need this knowledge because, it's very important to us all, as human, because it has to do with health, to save lifes nothing is Worth More than life, wealth without life is useless,

From the illustration above you can see that, the patients Radiographers skill to get well again, without the image from X-ray, it will be difficult to remove bullet from the patient with gunshot injury, also in such case, X-ray is important to check if there is a fractured of the bone.

Further more: the pregnant woman on scan, ultrasound scan is needed to check if there is any abnormality in pregnancy, the gender of the baby, position of the baby or if there is multiple pregnancy like twins, all these is possible with the aid of ultrasound knowledge, skill and good machine.

The knowledge i have shared is just to tell you people how medical Radiography is important that everyone needs their services also i have exposed some hidden facts about the profession, because it's against, medical practice to expose patients images, but i have to do it just to be original.

Talk about how technological advances have affected your field. This can be positive or negative.

Technology has really affected health care system in a positive way, especially in my department, i could remembered when i was an under-graduate, doing clinical posting, then most diagnostic center use manual processor and manual X-ray
machine. From the above image that is a digital X-ray machine, which is made of high technology, to facilitate X-ray examination, with low radiation to the patients.

Using either manual processor or X-ray machine is very strenuous, with much effect of radiation, but now a lot of diagnostic center have digital X-ray machine,

With portable ultrasound scan machine that facilitate examination, also most tertiary hospital in the country now have functions computed tomography machine CT and magnetic resonance imaging machine used for advance diagnosis of patients like brain CT scan and spinal cord scan using MRI is now been achieve with those modalities.

with the advance effect of technology in healthcare sector, mortality rate in pregnant women are on the decline, no much cases of pregnant women death during labour, because with the aid of ultrasound scan it possible to detect the presentation of the fetus, either the fetus is in breech or transverse lie to avoid given birth through surgical operation which may be fetal, The above image is a. ultrasound scan machine, which is highly sophisticated, made of advance technology.

With the aid of technology Cancer cases are of the decline, because more mammography machine are in place to detect cancer of the breast,

Also Radiography depends on technology, because all the modalities been used are advance technological machine, very digital, to facilitate diagnosis an to reduce radiation dose to the patients.

But the challenge is that their are very expensive to purchase it's worth, million of naira, and their are very sophisticated, easily breakdown, once it's breakdown occur, patients suffer because it takes a longer time to rectify the machine because the Engineers are not locally found. I could remembered the one that broke down, it's over three months now just to rectify it. and the new X-ray machine that was bought since last last the department is still struggling to install it.

Phone	Techno pop2 f
Country	Nigeria
Location	Ebonyi State, Abakaliki
Photography	@rad-austine

Conclusion:

I want to thank this wonderful @steem4nigeria community for organizing this unique contest, it's has given me the privilege to share the knowledge about my profession to other steemians, also to learn from other steemians profession, it's a great one, i hope you all have learned from mild knowledge i have shared.

Also all images were taken by me that is the reason there is no source.

Thank you all for viewing my post i sincerely appreciate.