Workplace experiences of diagnostic radiographers, on job satisfaction and staff retention in the public health sector in Lusaka District of Zambia

Background: Zambia's healthcare workforce is reportedly inadequate for the country's healthcare needs. This stems from healthcare professionals, particularly radiographers, exiting the public health sector for non-governmental organizations or other countries with attractive conditions of service. This study required to explore and describe the workplace experiences of public health sector radiographers in the province of Lusaka in Zambia and to examine how these experiences influence job satisfaction and staff retention . Methods: The study used a qualitative research design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data from 20 purposively selected public service radiographers, working in the Lusaka district of Zambia. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed by themes. Results: Five themes emerged: physical work environment, remunerations and rewards, staff workloads, leadership and supervision, and professional development. This study established that participants appreciate their physical work environment that constitutes modern and various imaging equipment. However, the majority of the participants expressed dissatisfaction with their workplace experiences owing to inadequate work spaces, inadequate salaries, a lack of incentives and rewards, increased workloads and inflexible work schedules, unapproved leadership style, lack of performance recognition and support for continuing professional development. Conclusion: The study findings provided information on the deficiencies within public service radiographers' work environment. To enhance job satisfaction and retention, the employer needs to addresses the challenges being experienced by the radiographers.

Adequacy of completion of radiology request forms at St. Francis' Hospital of Katete District: A clinical audit in Zambia.

Background: Most imaging examinations use ionising radiation which causes biological effects on the body. For this reason, only justified examinations should be requested by adequately completing the radiology request form (RRF) by clinicians. The RRF allows radiographers and radiologists to assess if the benefit outweighs the risk associated with medical radiation exposure. Inadequately or incorrectly filled RRFs leads to unnecessary radiation exposures, imaging errors, and delays in performing the examination. Therefore, this study aimed at auditing the adequacy of completion of general RRFs at St. Francis' Hospital of Katete District in Zambia. Methods: This was a quantitative study in which RRFs for general radiography from January to December 2020 were audited. Data were collected retrospectively using a checklist from a total of 974 RRFs. The filled-in forms were assessed for completeness of information related to the patient, examination, and referring clinician. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The standard of completeness was based on the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) guidelines requiring all the designated variables completed on the RRF. Results: Most N=881(90.5%), RRFs were incompletely filled. With regards to patient's identification, the findings revealed N=4(0.5%), N=597(61.3%), N=3(0.4%), and N=2(0.3%) RRFs devoid of patient's name, hospital number, age, and gender, respectively. Regarding the examination, the findings revealed N=3(0.4%), N=68(7%), N=449(46.2%), and N=336 (37%) RRFs devoid of requested examination, indication, clinical history, and level of urgency, respectively. Regarding the referrer, the findings revealed N=135(13.9%), N=173(17.8 %), N=472(48.5%), and N=31(3.2%) RRFs were devoid of information relating to the ward, clinicians' name, referring department, and signature, respectively. Conclusion: This audit reports that most of the RRFs were incompletely filled-in at St. Francis' Hospital. Furthermore, the hospital number, clinical history and level of urgency were the frequently unfilled variables. Overall, there were gaps in completion of RRFs requiring remedying.