Self-Reflection: CT Radiographer's Experience in Mental Healthcare

This self-reflection paper details a CT radiographer's journey in mental healthcare, focusing on the challenges, learning experiences, and ethical considerations encountered in clinical practice. The author discusses initial difficulties in diagnosing mental health conditions, the importance of self-motivation, and the impact of a supportive supervisor. Key themes include the application of biomedical, biopsychosocial theories, the significance of cultural competence, and the management of patient conflicts. The paper also explores community care practices, emphasizing the need for social justice and collaboration with parents, educators, and social workers. The radiographer reflects on the importance of patient-first care, talk therapy, evidence-based practices, and adherence to NHS policies, highlighting the ongoing development of self-discipline and ethical understanding in the field of radiography.

Running head: SELF REFLECTION
SELF REFLECTION
Name of Student
Name of University
Author note

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As a CT radiographer, it is very critical that the learning and the practices go on a
regular basis, adhering to clinical policies and evident based practice guidelines. It is highly
important to understand that to work in the framework of national health care framework of
United Kingdom which is predominantly mediated by National Health Services - is really
challenging and demands a lot of meaningful and complex skill sets (Newman et al. 2015).
When I first started as a CT radiographer in the organization, it was quite difficult to pass on
day after day, as a radiographer attending the psychiatric department, as there were so many
cases of so many variations that would confuse me a lot, and more than everything, the
differential diagnoses that a person is suffering from bipolar disorder or depersonalization
disorder for example, was a very hard choice to make and in the initial days of my clinical
practice, the choice of treatments and the right appropriate manner of assessment taking was
really a difficult process and it was highly complicated that how the other radiographers, the
senior radiographers working with the mental health subjects, working alongside me found it
extremely easy going to perform their day to day duties and carrying out the radiography
diagnoses and the radiography procedures pertaining to mental health care with complete
ease and interest. Interest really was not a problem for me for I was rationally inclined
towards my work, role and job in a great effective manner and it is very important to
understand that more the interest more is drive towards one’s own learning and skill
improvement. Neuroimaging in neurobiological radiography is a critical aspect of
investigating the causations of diseases in neuropsychiatry patients. In different bipolar
disease and schizophrenia patients as well as in neuropsychological degeneration such as in
Alzheimer’s, dementia and perceptual problems resulting from trauma (traumatic brain
injuries), the motor control and motor learning becomes extremely difficult and as a CT
radiographer, it is important to identify and mark the involved brain areas, in an appropriate
manner (Gray, Degeling and McEwen 2018). In the initial weeks and months of my work, it

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was very tough indeed to calm my nerves for I felt I was always working, working really very
hard and there is always something missing – may it be my skill set, my clinical decision
making skills or rational choice for a radiography intervention. With mixed feelings of
positivity and fear, I use to come to the mental health department every-day and start with
clinical radiography practice. With the doctors and other senior radiographers instructing me
all the time, it was seriously very difficult to focus and concentrate all the time, on all the
mentally ill patients whom I was attending and caring on a regular basis. Hence, it was very
stressful to pass every day and despite self-motivation and looking for other sources of
motivation – the daily mental health care practice added to my stress and anxiety to a great
deal and it was seriously leading to burnout after a few months. I could not sleep at night and
being very empathic, I felt the toughness and emotional states of my patients and their family
that caused me insomnia and lot of attachment issues with the patients. Then, I remember
very well that I was assigned a new supervisor radiographer who would take care of my
professional issues and help me better my skills as much as possible. Truly though, it was
only under her guidance I learned a lot of things – such as beneficence, autonomy, justice,
critical thinking and clinical decision making and incorporating all these into the framework
of my mental health clinical practice as a CT radiographer. It was interesting that she taught
me to look for sources of intrinsic self –motivation rather than the outside sources of
motivation and it was the first time, when I actually applied these skills that I grew better and
efficient with my clinical practice and begun to apply all the biomedical and biopsychosoical
theories of care to the mental health patients in a much effective manner (Mattheys 2015). It
is very critical to understand which I reflected many a times later on, that self-learning is the
most effective and most effective skill that help a person grow and understand very minutely
the fine dynamics of his or her profession and truly, in my case, self-learning, self-efficacy
and intrinsic motivation are the three very pivotal things that helped me understand how to

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manage my work, life balance in a more balanced manner and in what exact way, as a
radiographer, doing my clinical practice on every single day, should I be applying and
incorporating the radiography medical ethics principles such as beneficence, non-
maleficence, totality, autonomy and justice in a the most accurate of manners (Fancourt et al.
2016.). within some months, I learned to incorporate an important tool ‘cultural competence’
in my daily practice and it is highly useful that I suddenly felt that a spectrum for a
radiography practice, to which holistic caring of the patient is a very important radiography
theory and implication but with as the staff development sessions undertaken by the
healthcare organization, where I work, helped me learn new languages and skills – it certainly
helped me a lot to grow as a mental health care radiographer and work ethically in the same
way – building respectful relationship, building therapeutic relationship that is also very
meaningful to the patient and the family of the patient, proved very effective to my being and
becoming of a ‘good radiographer’ (Crowley, Carey and O’Connor, 2019). With cultural
competence, my clinical practice took new form altogether as I could understand and
comprehend more issues which were blurry before and but become very clear when, once I
started to practice with clinical reasoning that is supported by cultural competence. My
mental health radiography investigations started to become really very variant in different
cases and I had a lot of appropriate critical thinking ways plus clinical reasoning to apply in
each and every case I identified (bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, posttraumatic
stress disorder, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum
disorder). Another big issue, that I faced my clinical practice was that, I regular had conflicts
with some of the patient who did not seem to understand that I trying to help them as a
radiographer and I received complaints against me that I have breached the communication
related ethics with the patients but it was only that I felt that the mental health patient are very
stringent and guarded and it is very difficult to investigate them and this attitude again often

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diminished my quality of clinical practice (Boaz, Biri and McKevitt 2016). Again my peers
and my senior supervisor came to my rescue and this was again, when I learned something
new that it is not only important to apply cultural competence into the daily day to day
practice but it is also very important in a mental health radiography not conflict with the
patients as it can add to their self -harm behaviors (as in many schizophrenia or post-
traumatic stress disorder patients and also in dementia- Alzheimer’s - Parkinson complex
patients) – this was a common issue (Huxley et al. 2016.). So, I acted following that with
more care and empathy as to counter the problems in a more productive way and as soon as
incorporated kindness, sincerity, autonomy, beneficence in correct sense along with
compassion and turned my freedom of thinking from my side to the understanding of their
side of the picture and perspective, I found more happiness and meaningfulness in my own
clinical radiography practice and in true sense, the radiography procedures undertaken by me,
in mental health settings was improving. In my community care practices, I similarly applied
the skills of social justice in order to straighten the distorted parameters of social inequalities
amongst the minority communities and in these cases, along with the collaboration with other
radiographers and health care professionals – it is important to incorporate social model of
care rather than a medical model in a community radiography service and identifying the
needs of the community ( health, economic, socioeconomic, legal and mental, physical and
lifestyle) is very much critical and over months, I have learned, performing my clinical
practice as a radiographer that empathy, professional thinking is as important as
understanding the barriers of the social group and exact social and medical needs of the social
group is critical to the process of care in community radiography and rehabilitation
profession (Endo, Ishikawa & Matsumura 2019). The children are indeed are affected with a
lot of mental health conditions such as cerebral palsy, developmental disorders, psychosocial
problems, speech and language problems and many scientific researchers are coming up with

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the notion of childhood depression which increasing in number and that the symptoms of
these cases are very different from mild and severe depressive symptoms of the patients in an
early, middle or late adulthood and as CT radiographer, it is very much critical that the
situations plus environment of the child in a community living setting and that the lifestyle
plus bringing up of the child is assessed while correlating my CT scan investigation reports
that reflected the developmental brain issues (Edwards 2019). In a community setting, I also
believed in collaborating with the parents, the educators and social workers – thus imparting
them with the knowledge and the basic skill sets which are required for growth and
development of the child in a proper manner. In clinical practice, working as a radiographer
in a community setting, empowering the parents, the educators and social workers and
addressing the multi-level needs of the mental health subjects is very important and more
than everything- family play a very important part in community health setting (Cox, Hill and
Lack, 2013) and I realized not such the social model of care – it is also the medical model of
care that is at times feasible and useful to deliver a professional service to the patient. In
clinical practice, really, it is important to deliver an equitable, justified service to community
living people who are often oppressed of rights and has a diminished quality of life and
mental health practice, compassion, kindness and understand plus the ability of keeping away
therapeutic pessimism is also very much vital and critical to the radiography care delivery
process. The patient first care is something that I as a mental health care radiographer,
adhered to, as a radiography principles in integrated way as most of the processes in
radiography are targeted at investigating the brain injuries and the structural issues of the
brain areas (sensory, motor, perceptual, involved with planning and execution) so that the
pharmacological and non-pharmacological care can be planned properly (Preston 2019).
More than anything, with my radiography skills and efficacy, I used and incorporated talk
therapy in my radiography practice so as to deliver a proper counseling service to the mental

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health subjects I cared for plus their parents or family to be more precise, as well. It is to be
understood that I as a mental health care radiographer, adhered to the evidence based
practices and the patient caring policies to a great extent in order to deliver a proper a care
service to the mentally affected subjects (Kilburn, Iddles and Carrington 2018) and to adhere
to the mental health servicing policies put forward by the National Health Service framework
of United Kingdom, was although a very difficult ask in the beginning but with time and
experience, the care process delivered by me was normalized and I learned that to enhance
my self-development skills, self-discipline and deep understanding of the usefulness of the
evidence based care policies at local, national and state level is highly important and very
effective indeed when it comes to applying the right mental health services to the mental
health patients in both community and urban settings.

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Leadership as a matter of fact, is another important pillar in advanced radiography
practice in mental health care and more than everything, taking radiography leadership above
all, is a vital aspect of advanced practice in radiography. Taking leadership as in practicing
with autonomy and helping other radiographers to grow and develop their skills is all about
leading the self and others with justice. As mentioned before, that initially I struggled with
the intrapersonal and the interpersonal skills as in my communication and other areas of
clinical practice which not only hindered by delivery of care but also the care delivered. With
time and experience, in the mental health settings, I understood that importance of being
attentive, taking rational decisions, clinical decision making and the importance of taking
responsibility and ownership that are all very much required to leave a mark as a radiography
leader empowering my fellow staffs and the patients in a unique manner. Understand the
needs of the community I worked with as a mental health care radiographer helped me take
leadership and make right use of the circumstances and opportunities and work
collaboratively with the other professionals in the multi-disciplinary team is critical to the
process of radiography leadership. In mental health care servicing though, acting with the
right decision making as in the right use of force, working with the substitute decision makers
and restraint use with the patients is cardinal and fine understanding of the situation and the
case is highly important to deliver a patient centered service to the population in the
community settings. Ethnicity issues and ethical issues till arise in a great manner while
working with the mental health patient in a community setting or in an ethnic indigenous
setting and it is pivotal that as a mental health care radiographer working in this setting, to
take ownership and responsibility of your own actions at first and other the roles and service
delivery of others, in a compassionate manner and the true skill of a leader lies in conflict
resolution and as a CT radiographer, I have always focused on my own skills and helping the
skills of other radiographers and other different professionals to form a strength based clinical

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team and work towards a more strong, collaboration and ethical, mental health service
delivery to the community population. Action collaboration with the subjects and the social
activists of the community plus the traditional healers helped me a lot to deliver my care to
the people and improve my operational leadership skills. Language competence, cultural
competency and adjusting effecting effectively to the social determinants of health as
applicable to a particular community is important and as leader, to develop a sustainable
radiography and health care management strategy as delivered to a local community. In these
communities, as the care process is limited and the awareness too – the mental health issues
leads both to domestic violence and self-harm as well and as a CT radiographer, I took
leadership in investigating the physical injuries as well as the brain injuries. It is highly
critical to understand that the sustainable development is the goal of leadership taking and to
save the resources of the community as in social, cultural and the environmental is very vital
to the sustainability process maintenance over a desired period of time and the value-based
healthcare-economic challenges are the ones, that are to be managed effectively, potently and
strongly by the mental health care radiographers and as a mental health care radiographer, I
always adhered to my leadership and ownership roles pertinently to deliver the right services
to the right community within the planned strategy timeline. Seclusion, restraint behavior and
isolation of the mental health subjects in a community setting is very critical when it comes to
decision making by the CT radiographer and it is highly vital that as a radiography leader, I
adhere to absolute justice and I am aware of both the intervention and the need for the
intervention against the other alternate strategies that I have as a radiographer and if I find
anything unjustified done by any other practitioner, I would immediately voice my opinion
on the same which I did on most of the occasions and worked towards patient’s safety and
patient’s integrity, even under the most adverse of circumstances. The local community must
work towards the care process well and a vice versa support is also required and this is where,

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the most important function of a radiography leader comes to play that is to speak for the
people, to the people and to the general public of the community to make them more aware
about the health and life needs so as to prevent and manage the very causation of diseases and
the diseases in the most effective manner, respectively. Educating and imparting the right
knowledge to the right people which can be the patient himself or herself or family plus
society of the patient, actually helps in an equally equitable manner. The financial and
economic condition of the people living in the local communities plus their health care
accessibility is distorted plus sometimes they are under intense sociopolitical oppression
which are all very applicable with the care process and as a radiography leader, I always
focused on developing the public speeches that would help the reasons and the mental health
conditions of the local community and it is very important, that I always focused on the needs
of the community rather than just their health condition while I strategized the health care
process. It is very important too, which I realized later, to understand the perspectives of
others and taking their point of views into consideration, while making radiography decisions
– is a sign of a good leader and to understand, the perspectives of the others in the briefing
and debriefing procedure, is vital and it is very important as well. Leadership skills in mental
health servicing are both transforming and visionary, as the planning and the strategy making
processes are vital. Involving the families of the mental health process, giving importance to
their ideas and understanding the position of the substitute decision maker is the critical work
of the leader and as a CT radiographer, it is important only just to delegate task to the other
radiographers but as a leader, it is also very important to be compassionate with others
including the members of the team plus the members of the family of the patient so that the
operational processes of the treatments and the other psychosocial interventions are delivered
in a better manner. With the correct ways of mental health radiography leadership, I could
comprehend more cultural, psychosocial, social issues that are associated with the mental

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health issues that I started to practice with more responsibility and clinical reasoning that is
supported by cultural competence and evidence based practice. Decision making from
medical, social and clinical perspectives are all to be performed in a holistic manner and it is
very critical that as a radiography leader, knowledge, skills, attributes and learning
development needs in relation to leadership and clinical practice is addressed properly and
the mental health care policies under and within the framework of National Health Service
has to be complied by and related to properly.

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