Radiography and beyond: Conference allows students to explore career options

GCU’s Radiography Society are helping students prepare for their future careers thanks to a recent on-campus conference.

Students, lecturers and clinical staff came together for the GCU Radiography Society CPD Conference Day, which was held on 9 March in the university’s Annie Lennox Building.

Radiography Society president, Catherine Mackay, explained the idea behind the event:

“As a radiographer you need to get involved in four different CPD (Continuing Professional Development) exercises throughout a calendar year. A lot of the CPD and conferences tend to be aimed at graduated radiographers, so some of the talks can be aimed at a level higher than we’re currently at – it’s always interesting but it’s maybe not something we can push forward in our learning. This event was about creating something accessible that would benefit students currently in the process of learning their profession.

“There used to be conferences held between GCU, QMU and RGU, which are the three universities in Scotland that offer the BSc (Hons) Diagnostic Imaging course. One of our new lecturers, Will MacGregor, was involved in the last conference many years ago and came to me with the idea about taking it forward – this event was the perfect way to combine both our ideas.”

Catherine and the rest of the Society’s committee developed the concept of the conference further and put everything in place for 50 attendees on the day.

“Most of our society members are Diagnostic Imaging students so usually our society events are focused on that,” explained Catherine.

“It was important for us to branch out and have something that was suitable for Radiotherapy students as well, but also anyone with a healthcare background that wanted to come along.

“The main thing was then getting a variation of speakers from diagnostic, therapeutic and general medical backgrounds – it was all about making it innovative and exciting!

“We also had to make sure we got enough people there on the day. We opened tickets up to all of our society members for a reduced fee and then invited non-society members at GCU, QMU and RGU. We also encouraged clinical staff from our placements and our lecturers to come along on the day as well.”

Despite the event taking place on a Saturday, Catherine was delighted with the turn-out and the feedback received from the event.

She said: “It was amazing to see so many people coming together. We totally understand that there are so many competing priorities over a weekend, so to get the numbers we got was great.

“I was massively impressed by the guest speakers we had. I knew quite a lot of them personally, which definitely helped. A lot of the lecturing staff gave talks about their research that they’d been doing in their spare time, so it was nice to get an insight into what they get involved in away from the classroom.

“One of the consultants from the Scottish Trauma Network came and spoke to us about the pathway of patients and what happens when patients receive that initial response from the emergency services. We also had a talk around student mental health, which focused on how healthcare students can particularly struggle with the demanding nature of their role. It was really beneficial to hear about a few different coping mechanisms and strategies.

“The whole day was content heavy, and we did squeeze a lot into a short period of time, but there was a massive amount of information for people to take away.”

Catherine is due to graduate this summer but believes the society is in capable hands to continue delivering similar events in future.

“I’m hoping we can run something like this again in future. It’s going to be strange leaving GCU, but I know the committee are amazing and we’re in a really good place.

“Our society also massively benefits from the community within the BSc (Hons) Diagnostic Imaging programme. We’re quite a small course, so all the lecturers usually know everybody which makes a huge difference in terms of feeling respected. They also value our help as much as we value theirs, so the support is there for the society to continue developing.”

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By Ross Clark        
Got an SHLS or GSBS story? Email me at Ross.Clark@gcu.ac.uk or message me on Twitter