24/7 Diagnostic Radiographers at work study

Investigating the positive and negative aspects of night shift patterns in diagnostic radiography

At present, there is little research on the effects on staff who care for patients needing imaging across the 24-hour day. There are some studies into nursing and medical practitioners, but these do not account for the unique nature of a radiographer’s job role. This entails combining caring with safely producing good images to help manage a patient’s journey through healthcare pathways.

This research intends to identify good practices that can be shared with other hospital staff groups, such as nursing and medicine (as identified in previous literature reviews) or it may also uncover areas where diagnostic radiographers are at risk of poor health or reconsidering their career, safety may be compromised or teamworking is not as effective as it could be.

The plan is to undertake a two-part, mixed methods research study into the positive and negative effects of current shift hours and patterns in UK diagnostic radiographers, collecting data on different work structures and using validated burnout and wellbeing tools.

Study outcomes

The objectives of this research on UK radiographers are:

to explore the complex working environment for radiographers delivering a 24-hour service and the potential effects on wellbeing and safety.
to discuss the impact of this complex working environment on the individual radiographer.
to identify any change in well-being of radiographers when working outside of normal hours, and relate this to performance and safety.