The experiences of sonographers with regard to report writing and communicating their findings

Health SA Gesondheid

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The experiences of sonographers with regard to report writing and communicating their findings
 
Creator Ferreira, Cassandra A. van Dyk, Barbara Mokoena, Padidi L.
 
Subject Radiography; Ultrasound; Medical Imaging ultrasound reporting; report-writing challenges; training to support sonographers; reporting structure; South Africa
Description Background: Sonographers in South Africa are legally allowed to write their own reports; however, they often lack adequate training in providing a well-structured and coherent formal written report.Aim: The aim of this study was to explore and describe how sonographers in the Gauteng province experience the responsibility of report writing and to develop recommendations that could assist sonographers in the execution of their duty.Setting: Focus group discussions (FGDs) with sonographers from private and public hospitals located in Gauteng province were conducted at neutral locations that were convenient for the sonographers.Methods: A qualitative phenomenological research design was used for this study. A two-stage sampling approach was employed to recruit information-rich sonographers to partake in this study. Purposeful sampling was used to select sonographers based on their first-hand experience of report writing, followed by snowball sampling which allowed the researcher access to new participants on the recommendation of previous sonographers. Thirteen female sonographers voluntarily participated in the study, and the FGDs continued until data saturation was reached. The views and opinions of the sonographers were analysed using content analysis.Results: Key findings of this study indicated that sonographers felt unprepared to describe ultrasound findings correctly in order to provide a coherent and well-structured formal written report.Conclusion: Sonographers suggested the use of workshops or further training at higher educational institutions (HEIs) to support sonographers in their report-writing role.Contribution: The experiences identified by sonographers can assist HEIs to provide further training or workshops to support sonographers in communicating their findings effectively.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor
Date 2022-11-09
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative research; phenomenology; exploratory research; descriptive research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hsag.v27i0.2066
 
Source Health SA Gesondheid; Vol 27 (2022); 8 pages 2071-9736 1025-9848
 
Language eng
 
Relation
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https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/2066/html https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/2066/epub https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/2066/xml https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/2066/pdf
 
Coverage South Africa; Gauteng October 2018 - November 2018 20-50 years of age; Female; diverse ethnicity
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Cassandra A. Ferreira, Barbara van Dyk, Padidi L. Mokoena https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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