Original Article

Radiation Safety Awareness amongst Staff and Patients in the Hospitals

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the radiation safety condition and the level of radiation-awareness amongst staff and patients in 18 hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. This descriptive, cross–sectional study was administered to patients and personnel, also making a review on the radiation-safety status in the hospitals. In evaluating the level of awareness, 218 patients and 173 staff took part in the survey. A12-question inventory was used for evaluating radiation-safety status. In addition, 2 questionnaires including 15 and 6 questions were used in order to evaluate the level of radiation awareness among staffs and patients respectively. The questionnaires used included personal and general questions and its validity and reliability had been confirmed (Cronbach's alpha=0.711). The results have shown 71.1% good radiation-safety awareness among staff. Moreover, the level of staff awareness was not associated with educational level, gender, field of study, age and job experience. Conversely, only 6% of the patients have shown a good awareness level. In addition, as it depicted by the results there was a significant relation between awareness level and age (P<0.017), job (p<0.000) and educational level (p<0.004). Furthermore, the radiation safety status in 5 medical nuclear center and 18 radiology facility was 70% and 74%, in turn.  Unfortunately, radiation safety awareness is generally inadequate among radiologists and particularly poor in patients. The authors firmly recommend that patients should have more practical training and information available in this context.

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRPM) report 160. Ionizing radiation exposure of the population of the United States. National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements; MD, USA: 2009.

Patricia KN, Joseph CW. Radiation exposure from imaging tests: is there an increased cancer risk? Expert Rev Cardiovasc Ther 2011; 9(2): 177-183.

Ryan KLL, Winnie CWC, Colin AG, Timothy HR, Anil TA. Knowledge of radiation exposure in common radiological investigations: a comparison between radiologists and nonradiologists. Emerg Med J 2012; 29:306-308.

Lee CI, Haims AH, Monico EP, et al. Diagnostic CT scans: assessment of patient, physician, and radiologist awareness of radiation dose and possible risks. Radiology 2004; 231:393-8.

Shiralkar S, Rennie A, Snow M, Galland RB, Lewis MH, Gower-Thomas K. Doctors’ knowledge of radiation exposure: questionnaire study. BMJ 2003; 327: 371-2.

Arslano_glu A, Bilgin S, Kubal Z, Ceyhan MN, Ilhan MN, Maral I. Doctors’ and intern doctors’ knowledge about patients’ ionizing radiation exposure doses during common radiological examinations. Diagn Interv Radiol 2007; 13:53-5.

Heyer CM, Peters S, Lemburg S, Nikolas V. Awareness of radiation exposure of thoracic CT scans and conventional radiographs: what do non-radiologists know? Rofo 2007; 179: 261-7.

Mubeen SM, Abbas Q, Nisar N. Knowledge about ionising and non-ionising radiation among medical students. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad 2008; 20:118-21.

McCusker MW, de Blacam C, Keogan M, McDermott R, Beddy P. Survey of medical students and junior house doctors on the effects of medical radiation: is medical education deficient? Ir J Med Sci 2009; 178(4):479-83.10. Heyer CM, Hansmann J, Peters SA, Lemburg SP. Paediatrician awareness of radiation dose and inherent risks in chest imaging studiesda questionnaire study. Eur J Radiol 2010; 76:288-93.

Hatam N, Keshtkar V, Forouzan F, Bastani P. Patient Safety Culture Status in Teaching Hospitals: A Case of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. MEJSR 2012; 12 (7): 970-975. (Persian)

Gunnell D, Peters T, Hawton K, House A. Variations in the hospital management of self harm in adults in England: observational study. BMJ 2004; 328:1108.

DelliFraine JL, Wang Z, McCaughey D, Langabeer JR, Erwin CO. The Use of Six Sigma in Health Care Management: Are We Using It to Its Full Potential? Qual Manag Health Care 2013; 22(3):210-223.

Berrington de Gonza´lez A, Darby S. Risk of cancer from diagnostic X-rays: estimates for the UK and 14 other countries. Lancet 2004; 363:345-51.

O’Sullivan J, O’Connor OJ, O’Regan K, Clarke B, Burgoyne LN, Ryan MF, Maher MM. An assessment of medical students’ awareness of radiation exposures associated with diagnostic imaging investigations. Insights Imaging 2010; 1:86–92.

Borhani P, Alizade MS. Assessment of staff performance in Kerman University of medical sciences hospitals. Hormozgan MJ 2003; 51-58. (Persian)

Quinn AD, Taylor CG, Sabharwal T, Sikdar T. Radiation protection awareness in non-radiologists. Br J Radiol 1997; 70:102–106

Jacob K, Vivian G, Steel JR. X-ray dose training: are we exposed to enough? Clin Radiol 2004; 59:928–934.

Freudenberg LS, Beyer T. Subjective Perception of Radiation Risk. J Nucl Med, 2011; 52 (12):29–35.

Amirzade F, Tabatabaei HR. Assessment of knowledge of the principles of radiation protection of workers employed in hospitals of Shiraz. Iran J Nuclear Med 2004; 13 (24).

SOYE JA, Paterson A. A survey of awareness of radiation dose among health professionals in Northern Ireland. Br J Radiol 2008; 81, 725-729.

Bahari S, Morris S, Broe D, Taylor C, Lenehan B, McElwain J. Radiation exposure of the hands and thyroid gland during percutaneous wiring of wrist and hand procedures. Acta Orthop Belg 2006; 72(2):194-8.

Sanders R, Koval KJ, DiPasquale T, Schmelling G, Stenzler S, Ross E. Exposure of the orthopaedic surgeon to radiation. J Bone Joint Surg Am 1993; 75(3):326-30.

Lee CI, Haims AH, Monico EP, Brink JA, Forman HP. Diagnostic CT scans: assessment of patient, physician, and radiologist awareness of radiation dose and possible risks. Radiology 2004; 231:393–8.

Larson DB, Rader SB, Forman HP, Fenton LZ. Informing parents about CT radiation exposure in children: it’s ok to tell them. AJR Am J Roentgenol 2007; 189:271–5.

Ricketts ML, Baerlocher MO, Asch MR, Myers A. Perception of radiation exposure and risk among patients, medical students, and referring physicians at a tertiary care community hospital. Can Assoc Radiol J 2013; 64(3):208-12.

Rahimi A. Salar Sh. Evaluation of the Diagnostic Radiology department standards in Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences hospitals. JMUM 2002; 15 (49), 69-76. (Persian)

Herscovici DJr, Sanders RW. The effects, risks, and guidelines for radiation use in orthopaedic surgery. Clin Orthop Relat Res 2002; (375):126-32.

Files
IssueVol 6 No 3 (2014) QRcode
SectionOriginal Article(s)
Published2015-10-11
Keywords
Awareness Radiation Protection Radiation Center Safety Status Staff
Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
1.
Dehghani A, Ranjbarian M, Mohammadi A, Soleiman-Zade M, Dadashpour-Ahangar A. Radiation Safety Awareness amongst Staff and Patients in the Hospitals. Int J Occup Hyg. 2015;6(3):114-119.