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My name's Graham, I'm a second year Diagnostic
Radiography student, studying at Kingston and
St George's University London.
I chose Kingston basically because I'm originally from
Norther Ireland and I really wanted to go to university for
the experience, and with radiography the main focus is
obviously the patients and with London being the
honeypot of cultures I really wanted to come here
because you get to work with specialists from all over the
world, and as well as that the patients, you get the most
diverse range of patients you probably could get
anywhere studying in the UK. Coming to London really
opens up the opportunities to work with different cultures,
to understand different faiths and beliefs.
I would recommend the course to anyone who wants to
study radiography. The main benefits are basically the
two placements that we have throughout the three years
studying. It opens it up because other universities only
offer one hospital placement and so having two gives you
more experience working with different hospital protocols
and again the more experience you have, the more
employable hopefully you'll be at the end of the three year course.
The most important part of the course and the most
enjoyable part of the course has definitely been placements.
I've had two placements, one in East London and one in
West London in Chelsea, and to be able to see even the
complete diversity of population from east to west, and
the wealth of the population from east to west has
definitely impacted on the care of the patients. I think
it's opened my mind to realise that with wealth comes
different types of pathologies and different difficulties
or different interactions you might have with the patient.
But it helps you to become a better rounded radiographer
and definitely educates you in really the population that
you're going to be working with.
I really like the way that they teach you everything
before you go on placement, or the majority of stuff in
first year. I didn't want to be flung out into the palcements
straight away, I wanted to learn, learn the terminology,
learn the basics of the career before I was introduced
to the practice. And I guess that's one of the benefits of
Kingston St George's is that you have a grasp of what
the golden standard should be.
In the first year, for the first semester until December
is taught within the IFP programme, working along with
medics, physios, doctors, nurses, and that really helps you
to realise that you are part of a team. You'll never just be
treating that patient and there will be no other healthcare
professionals involved. You're working in a multi-disciplinary
team from day one. And then after December it's purely
at Kingston where it's very specialised, the teaching of the
diagnostic and therapeutic radiography. That's again a
good opportunity to really get focused.
I think definitely if you're considering a career in
radiography you should have a hospital placement,
maybe just one or two days in a department because it
really does get you a glimpse of what a day in the life of a
radiographer is. I think you really need to appreciate
that it's not just about taking images, you're actually
working with real life people and it's going to get messy,
especially in diagnostic radiography where you might be
working in accident and emergency. And it just rids you of
any pre-conceptions that you might have. So definitely
have a few days' placement. I'd also recommend definitely
visiting the campus, I know for me whenever I came to
Kingston and St George's I knew straight away this was
the place for me. It's a really beautiful part of South-west
London and it's definitely a place for students.
Everyone's very friendly and the teaching staff are always supportive.