My first year as a diagnostic radiographer

Transitioning from a student to a professional in a healthcare field is a significant milestone, marked by a blend of excitement, challenges, and professional growth. Ben Potts describes his first year as a diagnostic radiographer.

For anyone entering the nursing or allied health professions as a qualified professional for the first time, the transition from student to professional life brings about shifts in responsibilities, expectations, and day-to-day experiences. These are the key differences I noticed during my first year after qualifying.

Greater autonomy, but with consequences
Once qualified, you are now able to make your own decisions and enjoy relative autonomy in the workplace, but this comes tasked with justifying those decisions and their consequences, especially if they affect a patient’s care or outcomes. You also have to be prepared to justify why you didn’t choose another option or take a different approach.

Change in dynamics in interactions with team colleagues
As a student on placement, you are an individual working under the guidance of qualified staff within the team. Once qualified, you have a level of autonomy, but you also have responsibility towards your colleagues. There are many times where you might contribute to a group decision on what’s best for a patient, support a team member during a difficult encounter, or pull together as a team during a shift to ensure that you don’t leave the next team with a mountain of work or other problems at hand-over.

This team mentality goes beyond that of your own department, building good relationships with nurses, doctors, and other allied health professionals is essential. We all enjoy some interprofessional jovial rivalry, but whether I’m working in theatre with operating department practitioners, scrub nurses and surgeons, in orthopaedics with physiotherapists, nurses and healthcare assistants, in a swallow clinic with speech and language therapists, or on a major trauma with a huge diverse emergency care team in resus, we all pull together to deliver the best care we can for the patient.

Growth in professional confidence, skills and abilities
I find it difficult to explain what took me from the quiet and self-conscious student on placement to performing as part of a team in diverse environments. There are very few moments where I can clearly pinpoint stages of my growth during the year – or at least any points where I was consciously aware of it.

One example I do remember was very early on after qualifying. My colleague had briefly left the room and I was alone in the emergency X-ray department. The phone rang, and my immediate reaction was to leave it, thinking ‘the radiographer will be back in a second’. Then I had the stark realisation: ‘I am the radiographer, that is me now. I am that person with that role and with that responsibility, and I should answer.’

Similarly, I remember doing my first X-ray with no one supervising me. I kept feeling myself waiting for someone to give me the permission to continue at every stage of that X-ray process. When the X-ray image flashed up on screen, I was hit with a wave of pride and felt a bit giddy, but I was still waiting for someone to tell me whether it was acceptable or not. It took quite a few further images before I realised that I had the knowledge and the experience to give myself that validation.

Those moments aside, there has been a slow and gradual shift in my confidence, skills and abilities that I barely noticed. I have been plugging away, my skills have been growing in small ways, and it’s not until I look back that I can see how far I have come.

Working in the type of site that I do, where I work across a variety of departments and clinics, one year is not enough to have experienced everything. There’s always an operation I haven’t seen, a new technique to practise, or a piece of technology I haven’t used. The confidence that comes with this little bit of experience I have so far doesn’t mean I feel that I can do it all, it means that I feel that I am able to try. 

The small growth I have gained only comes from repeatedly putting myself in new and uncomfortable positions. I now have more confidence if I am using a new technique or attempting something else for the first time, because I am confident in my ability to adapt and learn new skills, but also to recognise when things are a stretch too far for me and when it is time to call for support.

Managing your own expectations of yourself
One of the most significant challenges as a newly qualified professional is managing self-expectations. As a student, you have the safety net of supervision and the understanding that you are still learning. As a qualified radiographer, there can be a sudden change in how your abilities are perceived. However, if you are working somewhere with a supportive culture and a comprehensive preceptorship programme (a period of structured transition to guide and support newly qualified practitioners from students to autonomous professionals), you might find, like me, that it's not the pressure and perceptions from others that cause you anguish, but it is matching the expectations you have of yourself.

When you are newly qualified, you have just finished your final exams and are flying high – you feel like you are going to change the world. However, it’s important to recognise that while you now hold a professional title, you are still at the beginning of a, hopefully, long career journey. Your skills and knowledge will continue to grow with experience. Initially, you may feel like you should perform flawlessly, but it’s crucial to give yourself the grace to learn and develop gradually.

The transition from student to qualified professional is itself a learning process so it helps to maintain an open mindset, embracing each day as another opportunity to learn and improve. Reflecting on your experiences, seeking feedback, and being open to constructive criticism aided my professional growth. 

I have also been lucky to benefit from a wide support network, including my preceptor, work colleagues and my future PhD supervisor and colleagues at City, University of London, who have provided guidance and reassurance. Many healthcare professions also have a very active social media presence and these forums can offer support and camaraderie.

After those initial, sometimes difficult early months, the rewards of making a tangible difference to  patients' lives, working with some excellent colleagues, and having more autonomy in my work has been fantastic. I love diagnostic radiography and feel that I belong. 

I am also passionate about research and I am soon to embark on a PhD. I have opted to do that part-time, partly because I think it is important that I am immersed in practice while I undertake the research, but also because now I cannot imagine giving up clinical work.

To sum up, my advice for anyone transitioning from student to professional is to embrace the challenges and opportunities with an open mindset, and focus on continuous learning and professional growth. By managing your self-expectations and seeking support, you can navigate this transition successfully and thrive in your new role. Remember, the journey from student to professional is ongoing, and each experience contributes to your development as a skilled and compassionate healthcare professional – whether you notice it or not.

About the author

Ben Potts is a newly qualified diagnostic radiographer, graduating with first class honours from Birmingham City University. He was awarded 'UK Student Diagnostic Radiographer of the Year 2022' by the Society of Radiographers, and is an alum of the Council of Deans of Health’s student leadership programme.