When I first considered the term “professionalism”, I felt “of course I am a professional” but as I stopped to really consider what this meant, I realized I needed to do some more digging. Being a medical radiation technologist means I am held to standards put forth by the Medical Radiation Technology Act, 1991 (Ontario) and the Regulated Health Professionals Act, 1991 (Ontario). These two acts form the framework for the College of Medical Radiation Technologists of Ontario (CMRTO, 2019) and the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists (CAMRT, 2019). In 2009 the Regulated Health Professions Statute Law Amendment Act, 2009 (Ontario) also came into force which requires “health colleges to work together to develop common standards of knowledge, skill and judgement in areas where their professions may provide the same or similar services” (Ontario). With this amendment, we can see how our profession needs to work together with other professions for the greater good of our patients. Communication is key to this. When another allied health profession expands their role, it directly impacts others. For example, when the Nurse practitioners had the list of imaging test’s they could order expanded (CNO, 2019), this information must be shared with both the nurse practitioner and the radiation technologists so that they know they are allowed to act on that order.
Part of maintaining my professionalism is being mindful of my social media presence. What we say and do on-line can be directly connected back to our professional college, employer and future employers. We must be aware that even when applying privacy settings, nothing is truly ever completely private. It is often a challenge to figure out how to merge our personal views with our professional views as we essentially have two identities, our personal identity and our professional identity. It is part of our responsibility as MRT’s to support our patient’s information needs (Bola & Liszewski, 2017). For myself, I think the ability to inform patients in advance on more details of the medical tests they will be going through is served by hospitals web sites. These sites give a description of the tests as well as contact information for patients should they require more information than provided on the site. Our college, the College of Medical Radiation Technologist of Ontario, also provides a good overview of what we do as medical radiation technologists (MRT). There will be continued growth in the area of social media as it relates to our profession as more technology savvy technologists enter the field. The use these of these platforms can help further our professional growth via educational sharing such as journal clubs and webinars (Bola & Liszewski, 2017). I do hope that Nations is correct with his prediction that social media will likely be “more personalized and less noisy” (Nations, 2019) as this is my current reason for my limited social media presence, it's so overwhelming. For now, I feel comfortable knowing that patients have access to the information they need without me adding this content to my personal social media accounts.
Professionalism is well spelled out by the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists (CAMRT). As an MRT I feel that the professional values listed by CAMRT are in-line with how I practice. Two values really speak to me, patient and family centred care and interprofessional collaboration (CAMRT, 2019). When thinking of patient/family centred care, we have to remember that patients count on us to provide the information about the test they will be going through in order to be able to decide if they wish to proceed. Without knowledge, they cannot make an informed decision about their health. Understanding also allows them to feel more comfortable with what is about to be performed on them. Interprofessional collaboration is about how all health professionals can work together for the betterment of the patient. I find as an MRT especially, I spend a lot of time educating others about how what I do impacts the patient journey and why I ask others, such as nurses, to do certain tasks. Taking the time to explain the “why” usually results in better compliance from both staff and patients.
MRT’s are part of the allied health team. While we are not as well-known as our nurse and doctor partners, we are an integral part of the patient’s journey as our delivery of imaging services helps reveal answers to the questions presented by the patient and their doctor. Our continued interactions with our health care partners are important to ensuring that patients get the best possible care owed to them. We must continue to be aware of our commitment to our professional body and how we contribute to the professional standards put forth by our professional college in person, with other health professions and via our on-line presence.
References
Bola, R., & Liszewski, B. (2017). Knowledge Translation in 140 Characters or Less: #ProfessionalDevelopment #Collaboration #Patientengagement. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences, 48(3), 221-225.
Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists (2019) MRT Profession. Retrieved September 29, 2019, from
College of Nurses of Ontario (2019). Standards and Learning. Retrieved September 29, 2019, from
College of Medical Radiation Technologists of Ontario (2019) Resources. Retrieved September 29, 2019, from
Nations, D. (2019). What is Social Media? Retrieved September 20, 2019, from
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