Medical Radiation Technologists Act To Justify Public Trust

However, public confidence and trust in the Health System is primarily based on a patient’s individual impressions and perceptions influenced by health professionals such as medical radiation technologists. These impressions are based on the patients experience with the health professional in regard to how they act towards and the standard of care given to the patient. There are certain laws and ethical standards in place that govern the way health professionals act and practice their profession which therefore influence individual patient perceptions and thus act in a way to justify public trust and confidence. This essay will look at three key ways in which medical radiation technologists act to justify public trust and confidence. These

Essentially, optimization is based on the requirement of ALARA which stands for ‘As Low as Reasonably Acceptable’, where MRT’s must make sure that exposures are kept as low as possible to achieve an image with diagnostic quality (ICRP, 2007). This is further outlined in the ‘Radiation Safety Act 2016’ in section 9.1where, a health professional who deals with radiation must ensure that the benefits to people and society must outweigh the risk of harm to people (Radiation Safety Act, 2016). Both of these legislations illustrate the importance of radiation safety to the profession of medical imaging and thus MRT’s must abide by these standards to make sure they are holding the safety of the patients and the public to a high standard. This upholds trust and confidence as individual patients and the public can be confident that the care they receive during an x-ray procedure holds their best interest in

Patients share sensitive information relating to their bodies and lifestyle which allow health professionals the ability to provide correct treatment and care. However, this information must be kept private and only be available to the health professionals directly connected to the patients care as well as the patient themselves. This is defined by a key ethical standard in the ‘Code of Ethics’ by the Medical Radiation Technologist Board (MRTB). Principle 1.5 states that an MRT must “Protect the patient’s right to privacy and keep all patient information in the strictest confidence” (MRTB, 2017). This is particularly important when collecting information from the patient. An MRT should not collect or discuss sensitive patient information in public areas where they may be overheard. This means that details apart from the patient’s name should not be discussed in the waiting room and should instead take place in the X-ray room. Furthermore, when collecting this information, the MRT should only ask for information that is needed for their scope of practice. This is further outlined by the Privacy Act 1993. In section 6.4 clause (b) it is stated that “personal information must not be collected by an agency by means that are unfair or intrude to an unreasonable extent upon the personal affairs of the individual concerned” (Privacy Act, 1993). The MRTB code and the