Sinead Rothery: radiology services manager, advanced radiology centre, Beacon Clinic, Sandyford
My day starts at about 8.30am and ends shortly after 5pm which is unusual for a radiographer.
I worked in Vincent's hospital for six years in a busy X-ray department with some 50 radiographers and was on call nights and weekends. My hours here are not typical compared to then, because I now work in a new private clinic.
While it's quite different to working in a main hospital there is a lot more responsibility on the business side of things.
There are two other radiographers but initially I was on my own when the centre was being set up two and a half years ago.
The first thing I do in the morning is open the clinic, turn on all the machines - MRI scanner, CT Scanner and Dexa scanner. I get them ready which includes doing quality control on all the machines.
I then get the full list of MRI patients and we'd do 10 patients a day.
All are outpatient appointments. These are generally sports injuries and neurological referrals or CT scans. We float between the three scanners during the day.
We also do a bit of cardiac CT which is an unusual, very interesting and very new area in CT scanning. It assess the risk of cardiac disease.
Occasionally we do Dexa scanning for osteoporosis and bone density.
As general manager of the radiology centre, I deal with patients and patient queries, and I manage the administration side of things.
We've two administration staff and I'd organise and oversee appointments. I'm also in charge, overall, of radiation protection. I take the radiation badges and send them to the Radiological Protection Institute to be measured every two months.
I'm responsible for setting up all scans and work in conjunction with the clinic radiologist. I answer to him. He comes in every evening to read the scans. We do them. He reads the images and writes up the reports.
Working in a private setting is different to a public hospital. It's a little more controlled and a big bonus is that I don't have to work nights and weekends.
The quality of life is good and I've got the life/work balance right for me.
Because it's appointments only, it's much easier to organise the day. There's no casualty or intensive care departments so it's a much more structured day than working in a hospital where 10 patients could arrive suddenly.
Work isn't as varied as in a public hospital. I'm eight years qualified now and the time I worked in Vincent's has proved very valuable.
It enabled me to develop my skills in a variety of areas. I'd advise all graduates to work first in a public hospital when they come out of college as they'll get varied experience.
I'm a graduate of UCD. I did a postgrad in Cat scanning also at UCD four years ago and now I'm doing a post-grad in MRI as I'm specialising in these areas.
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