EVALUATION OF AWARENESS AND ATTITUDE OF RADIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGIST TOWARDS RADIATION SAFETY IN DHAKA CITY OF BANGLADESH

Radiation safety culture in health care considers radiation protection of patients, health workers and the general public. Radiation protection is the science and art of protecting people and the environment from the harmful effects of ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation in medical imaging is one of the powerful diagnostic tools, and accurate knowledge of radiation protection will affect the radiological technologists? safety behaviors during practice. This is a preliminary descriptive study aimed to evaluate radiological technologist knowledge and performance towards radiation protection during their working time. Total of 75 radiology technologists who work in various hospitals were participated in this study and data was collected through well-structured pretested self-administered questionnaire. Among 75 radiology technologist responded to this study, there were 75% male and 25% female and education qualification for most of them were Diploma (80.7%) level. Moreover the study did not find any relation between level of education of participants and work expertise with their knowledge around necessity performance of periodical examination. According to data analysis, there was no significant relation between awareness of radiation safety, performance and work experience. In this study there were (75%) male and (25%) female and most of them had no bachelor degree (about 80%). Regarding radiation protection and awareness, majority of the participants (98.7%) only know that doors and walls should be well shielded, they should wear personal monitoring devices during work time to monitor the individual dose limit and their devices used to check periodically providing assurance that dose limits are not exceeded. But most of radiology technologists are very unconscious about patient safety. Only 10% of respondents have some knowledge on ALARA Principle and ionizing radiation. It was also warning that only 72% of respondent technologists use to wear lead apron during their work. It is due to lack of awareness among professionals and patients regarding the potential harmful effects of unintended medical exposure. These may be caused by insufficient knowledge of the risks and relevant contributing factors among medical professionals, regulatory and public health authorities. Justification of the study: Radiology technologist should always adhere to radiation protection/safety protocols in their daily practices, they could protect themselves and patients from harmful effects of ionizing radiation. Research ouestion: How much knowledge and awareness does a radiology technologist have to protect himself, patient, public and environment from ionizing radiation (x-ray)? Objective: Hospitals are medical institutions that contain a lot of risk factors. One of these factors is that employees, general public and patients are exposed to ionizing radiation. The purpose of this study was to examine the knowledge and awareness level of radiology technologist regarding radiation safety and to emphasize the level of knowledge towards radiation safety.