.png)
As a Nigerian Sonographer moving to work in the UK, there are many things you should be aware of to help guide your practice and make your transition as smooth as possible in the UK.
In this article, I have highlighted 5 things I wish I knew before coming to work in the UK as a Sonographer, as knowing them sooner would have helped me steer clear of some avoidable mistakes. So let's dive in.
#1 - It's okay to make mistakes
Okay, don’t get too carried away with this, there are mistakes and there are MISTAKES. I’m talking about everyday simple mistakes in practice, like forgetting to include something in your scan report due to work pressures.
Making the mistake is one thing, but realising your mistake and refusing to act on it or attempting to hide it is a whole other issue, and that’s never okay.
Back in Nigeria, its common to think of the ultrasound practice in the UK as extremely daunting because of the belief that if you made the slightest mistake, you could be immediately dismissed, you could have your name struck from the regulatory register, or you could get into multiple litigation issues. On the contrary, the greatest issue with making any kind of mistakes, whether big or small, is attempting to hide it, or not doing anything within your capacity to correct or manage the situation in a timely manner.
There are systems in place in the UK that help to prevent mistakes from happening, and systems in place that help to manage mistakes that have already happened.
Using the example I started with, if you forget to put something in your scan report and you have already verified your report (sent it to the referrer), when you realise your mistake, what you can do is to add an ‘addendum’ to your report on the system and send it off again to the referrer.
Now depending on how long it took you to realise that mistake, or based on your departmental protocols, you may have to follow up your addendum with a call, email or fax to the referrer, to make sure whatever you forgot is factored into the decided management of the patient.
Not doing this could result in a mismanagement of the patient and if traced back to you could spell problems.
If for instance, you were assisting a patient up from the couch, and the patient slipped and fell, the worst thing that can happen to you is trying to hide this event. In the UK, for your sake and for the sake of everything you hold dear, you must report this incident as soon as possible via what we call a ‘Datix’ on the system. It is especially important that you do this for the patient's sake.
So the instruction for mistakes of this nature would be to Datix the event, that is fill a Datix form on your work system describing everything that happened including witnesses present.
The idea of this is to inform all relevant management of this incident, so the necessary measures can be taken to ensure the patient is properly taken care of.
Failing to report this could mean management of the patient is not tailored to accommodate the recent fall and could result in missing certain things that may be fatal or detrimental to the patient if not checked, and you don't want that.
The kind of mistakes that come from repeated negligence, inappropriate conduct at work, lack of professionalism with patients and colleagues, etc are a whole other world of mistakes and are not acceptable in any way, respect yourself and don’t try these please.
#2 - Documentation is alpha and omega at work in the UK.
There's a popular saying over here that if it’s not written down, it didn’t happen. For your sake and that of your future in the UK as a sonographer or even a radiographer, take that statement very seriously.
Nothing is too small or too big to document in the UK. When the chips are down and there is an issue on ground, you need documented evidence to support your case, verbal evidence can do little to nothing for you.
I’ll give you an example. Before undertaking a transvaginal scan, you obtained verbal consent from the patient, but you didn’t document this on your report. It didn't seem like a problem on that day so you went about your business as usual.
Somehow though, about 7 months down the line, the patient complains that you scanned her without her consent on that day and she feels she was taken advantage of.
The first thing anybody investigating the case would do will be to check your scan report on the day. If nothing about the patient’s consent has been documented on that report, then its literally your word against hers.
What makes it worse for you is that it’s completely logical to infer that because this issue happened 7 months ago, and because you have scanned so many patients in the last 7 months, its possible that your recollection of events is not clear enough, and so the patient may be right.
By the time they finish speaking all this grammar, you’re already in big soup. Not to scare you though, this alone is not enough grounds to dismiss you or do something severely drastic to you, however, little drops of water make an ocean and you just don’t want to find yourself in this position.
But if you’ve got it documented in your report that the patient did in fact give her consent before the examination, then to a very large extent you’re covered.
Documentation doesn’t just apply to dealings with your patients, it also applies to dealings with your colleagues and managers.
You can’t control anyone’s decision to complain or report issues, whether or not they happened in your opinion. What you can control however, is your professional accountability over your actions, inactions and omissions.
Saying you’re innocent and proving you’re innocent are two different things, so always write events down.
Bonus Article: 5 essential things the Nigerian Radiographer/Sonographer must get as soon as they land a UK job
#3 - You could specialise in a single area of Ultrasound.
The ultrasound training back in Nigeria, coupled with the general work culture/expectation is such that as qualified sonographers, you undertake scans of all the areas you are trained in.
So one sonographer could undertake abdomen, gynae, obstetrics, MSK, paediatrics, neck and breast scans. While this offers a very good clinical foundation for Nigerians to practice in any part of the world, its also nice to know that you don’t have to undertake all these body-part scans to be considered valuable to the team.
In the UK, some sonographers do only gynae scans day in day out. Some undertake only paediatric scans, or combinations of abdomen and gynae only, obstetrics and gynae, MSK and abdomen only, etc.
Having this knowledge means there's really no need to unnecessarily pump your CV with too much of what you do when applying for jobs.
If for instance, you want to stop undertaking obstetrics scans, you could eliminate your skills in that area from your CV when applying for jobs, so if you’re taken and employed, then there’s no expectation from you to undertake these scans.
The beauty of this also is that the salary of a UK band 7 sonographer who is undertaking all body-part scans, and that of a band 7 sonographer undertaking only one-body part scans is the same.
So allowing room for the importance of skill versatility for career progression and overall professional fulfilment, specialisation is really is something to think about before giving away too much of yourself.
#4 - Being too helpful could put you in trouble
In my experience from when I was a radiographer and sonographer in Nigeria, going out of one’s way to work beyond your contracted hours, or beyond your contracted duties was often rewarded with little favours and perks by your boss, just to appreciate the additional value you were providing to the patients and to the service.
If an issue arose during those times you were going out of your way to help, chances are you will get enough support from your employer to help cushion the effect of such issues. But in the UK, you can never be too sure.
For instance, if your departmental protocol is to always carry out scans with a chaperone in the room, and for some unclear reason your chaperone is unavailable, so you decide to undertake the scan without him/her.
At that point in time it could feel okay. But if anything were to happen, for instance the patient complains that you touched him/her inappropriately, then the first question your manager/investigator will ask is, was there a chaperone in the room? If there wasn’t, why didn’t you write to the manager on duty requesting for a chaperone replacement since yours was unavailable?, why didn’t you seek permission from the superintendent to carry on with the scan without a chaperone if no one was available? If you did, did you document it? Why didn’t you cancel the scan altogether?
It’s questions like this that will be flying up and down, and in your mind, all you’ll be thinking of is how the patient was really ill and had waited too long, so you just wanted to help the patient so they can be attended to as quickly as possible.
But at this point in time it’s all in your head and the bottom line is that you’re at the mercy of this case because you did in fact go against the departmental protocol, no matter how helpful you were trying to be.
So, its okay to be helpful, but strike a healthy balance with it, and make sure whatever you do is obeying the laws on ground and within the scope of your contracted duties.
Prevention will always be better than cure. Being ‘helpful’ does not necessarily guarantee immunity from repercussions.
Tip #5 - Oversharing could also spell trouble for you
Nigerians are generally very light-hearted and usually interpret the excessive smiles from colleagues in the UK workplace as an invitation to get too comfortable and overshare on their past professional lives and/or personal lives. Don’t do this.
As a Nigerian or African sonographer, oversharing can make you appear quite unprofessional, it could lead to an unconscious bias towards you with a touch of discrimination sometimes, and can also lead to a loss of respect from colleagues.
For instance, your UK colleagues have no business knowing all the juicy details of how excited you were when you first got your job in the UK. They very likely would not understand all the peculiarities that landed you in the position to feel so excited when you got offered the job, so it may be very easy for you to be instantly looked upon as a charity case, like they’re doing you a favour to work with you, and that’s not the kind of impression you want to set for yourself.
You have to understand and get comfortable with the fact that Nigeria and UK are two different countries, and therefore have two different cultures.
What is considered normal in the workplace in Nigeria, would not necessarily be considered normal in the UK, so there’s really no need to overshare the general intricacies of your previous practice in comparison to the UK, conversations like this often end up with you getting hurt in the long run.
Obviously, different countries will have different protocols and guidelines of practice, but the basics and fundamentals of ultrasound or radiography practice are the same, and that’s all that matters. Stick to that and let your conversation end there.
In conclusion,
Working in the UK is a great experience but it’s very important that you are prepared for the unique challenges and differences that come with being an African sonographer or radiographer in an entirely different country.
The more aware and mindful you are of the cultural differences in the workplace, the greater your overall experience will be.
It encourages me when you explore the rest of the website, leave a comment below, and subscribe to stay in touch with monthly updates, so please feel free to.
Bonus Video:
Thank you so much.. African are known for generosity
This information you have shared can't be over emphasised. Thank you
Nice write up. I wish there was a way u could re-arrange the sequence to make serial 5 to become serial 1.
Nigerian or African-trained Sonographers/Radiographers need to know that it is okay for someone whom you work with not to like you or vice versa. What matters is that both of you do your roles whenever the need arises.
This is very informative,thanks for sharing Chief
Thank you so much for this great information