Sonographer Job Responsibilities In A Glimpse

Sonography is an art of diagnosing diseases and medical conditions through the use of contemporary ultrasound technology. Diagnostic medical sonographer is a specialised person in an administrative field.
There are countless sonographer jobs available since the field is sub-divided into different areas of specialisation including performing ultrasound scans on specific body parts. The specialised person is required to deal with the necessary sonography equipment and to obtain images of specified parts of the body. Once the images are taken, a radiologist scans the images and then a final report is submitted to the physician. Sonography is quite in demand these days but if you hate hospitals then you can also go for ITU or SLT job as well.

Job duties of a medical sonographer:
Job responsibilities of a sonographer are discussed below

Ultrasound testing:
Principal Job duty of a medical sonographer doing an ultrasound job is to conduct ultrasound tests of the specified areas of a body based on the doctor’s prescription. The desired area of a patient’s body is then subjected to high-frequency sound waves through ultrasound machine in order to produce a clear image of the area. He has to make sure that the image is clear so that a doctor can diagnose the disease properly.

OB/GYN:
Gynaecologist and obstetric scans ultrasound test report to examine the fetus in the womb for any disease, size or any other potential problem. The sonographer uses report to find any problem with the uterus, vaginal canal, cervix, small tumors etc.

Cardiology:
Diagnostic medical sonographers are also required to scan cardiovascular system to identify blockage or damage in the arteries, heart or veins. An experienced sonographer will know if the patient had previous heart attack or any current problems including heart pumping too fast or too weak plus he can also suggest if the surgery is needed or not.

How Occupational Therapy helps people with chronic diseases?

Occupational Therapists are health professionals skilled in physical and psychosocial rehabilitation for people with disabilities, chronic diseases, and other medical conditions. Occupational therapy is dedicated to enabling individuals to participate in fruitful and meaningful activities of life. During the evaluation and intervention process, practitioners interact and collaborate with patients and their caregivers to achieve better results. By considering limitations and abilities of a patient, environmental features, and the specific demands of the activities that are important for the family or patient, occupational therapy practitioners help their patients to live life to its fullest.

How occupational therapy helps chronic disease management?

Occupational Therapy supports chronic disease management in several ways based on the nature and course of the specific conditions, goals for patients with chronic health conditions may include following:

·         Attending problems or symptoms associated with specific chronic illness to manage and sustain current abilities.

·         Developing strategies to embed energy conservation and activity modification techniques into daily schedule to cope with physical demands and reduce fatigue associated with many chronic conditions.

·         Individualising adaptations to efficiently conduct routine health management activities.

·         Learning and incorporating health management tasks into current habits so they become part of patient’s routine.

·         Teaching and demonstrating techniques to ease stress, help cope with pain, manage tiredness, or difficult symptoms associated with the disease.

·         Adapting activities to make them suitable for changing abilities and enable activities to continue.

·         Developing cope strategies, behaviour, habits, routines, and lifestyle adaptations to support physical and psychosocial health and well-being.

In occupational therapy, self management is recognised as an effective method to the management of chronic health conditions. It is the individual’s ability to manage the symptoms, treatment, physical and psychosocial consequences and lifestyle changes inherent in living with a chronic disease. Efficacious self-management includes ability to monitor one’s condition and to affect the cognitive, behavioural, and emotional responses essential to keep an adequate quality of life. 

Your World Healthcare UK is one of the leading recruiters for Occupational Therapy Jobs. If you are looking for a OT jobs or aOT Professionals, visit us at: http://www.yourworldhealthcare.co.uk/ - or contact our team 020 7220 0811.

A Healthy Lifestyle For Cancer Prevention!

Did you know you can reduce your risk of cancer by adopting a healthy lifestyle? In 2009, approx 156,900 people in the UK died from cancer according to the NHS. However, since the 1990s survival rates in men and women have improved for the majority of cancers. There are no definitive ways to avert cancer, but you can minimise your risk, with a healthier lifestyle.
The risk factors that you can do something about, include smoking and being overweight,  there are certain things you can do, to reduce your risk. Leading a healthy life can help minimise your risk of developing certain cancer types. You can achieve this by adopting a healthy routine:
•    Eat a balanced diet
•    Maintain a healthy weight
•    Avoid alcohol (or drink less)
•    Do not smoke
•    Protect your skin from sun damage
Eating Healthy
Often, you will find stories and researches about various foods and diets in connection to preventing cancer. This happens because a lot of research and development work is going into diet and cancer care. However it is not as simple to find the link between diet and cancer because there are several factors involved and many cancers can take years to grow. 
Researches indicate that no single food can prevent cancer from developing. In general, researchshows a positive link between eating particular groups of foods, instead of some specific foods, vitamins, or nutrients, and a reduction in cancer risk. Furthermore, a healthy balanced diet constitutes:
•    Significant amount of fruits and veggies – Five portions a day!
•    Significant amount of bread, rice, potatoes, pastas, and other starchy foods – Preferable to eat whole grain foods
•    Adequate amount of meat, fish, eggs, beans, and other non-dairy sources of protein
•    Some portions of milk and dairy items
•    Just a small amount of high in fat or sugars, including cakes, crisps, and biscuits, etc.
Dieticians play an integral role in helping people with the balanced diet and other healthier life activities.
Maintain Weight

In the UK, more than 60% of the population is overweight or obese. Being overweight or obese can increase your risk of some cancers such as:
•    Bowel Cancer
•    Pancreatic Cancer
•    Oesophageal Cancer
•    Breast Cancer
•    Cancer of the Womb (uterus)
•    Kidney Cancer
To find out whether you are a healthy weight or not, you can use a BMI healthy weight calculator.
Say NO to Alcohol
Drinking alcohol is known to develop your risk of some cancers, including:
•    Mouth Cancer
•    Pharynx and Larynx Cancer
•    Oesophageal Cancer
•    Colorectal Cancer in men
•    Breast Cancer
Moreover, it is potentially a cause of cancers such as colorectal cancer in women and liver cancer. It is advised that women should not drink over 2-3 units of alcohol in a day and men should avoid drinking more than 3-4 units a day.
Stop Smoking

Lung cancer is the leading cause of deaths in UK, it accounts for around a quarter of cancer deaths, and 90% of lung cancer cases are related to smoking.  "Stopping smoking greatly cuts the risk of developing cancer," says Hazel Nunn, Cancer Research UK's health information officer. "The earlier you stop, the greater the impact. But it's never too late to quit. People who quit smoking at 30 live nearly as long as non-smokers and those who quit at 50 can still undo half the damage."
Avoid Sun Damage

To prevent skin cancer, taking care in the sun is important. You can follow cancer research UK’s SunSmart plan to protect your skin from damage:
•    Spend time in the shade between 11am and 3pm.
•    Make sure you never burn.
•    Cover yourself up with a T-shirt, hat and sunglasses.
•    Take care not to let children get burned.
•    Use sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 15.

For dietitian jobs, visit Your World UK – a leading healthcare recruitment agency, helping dieticians and nutritionists find quality jobs in organizations throughout the UK. http://www.yourworldhealthcare.co.uk/medical-vacancies/dietetics_nutrition/

Why GP Locums are important?

In the UK, there are an estimated more than 15,000 GPs working as Locums. They comprise a quarter of the general practice workforce in the region and attend to up to 36 million patients each year. A Locum is a qualified doctor who offers provisional replacement or covers sick leaves, staff holidays, or other professional commitments. Sometimes, newly qualified doctors work as locums to gain experience and get familiar with hospital environment. There are also more experienced doctors who wish to work flexibility, or doctors from overseas and retired doctors who take up locum positions.

Dr Richard Fieldhouse, a GP Locum and Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Sessional GPs, in an interview said, “I’ve seen a jump in the number of GP partners leaving their regular practices mid-career to become locums, mostly from the sheer burden of extra paperwork and clinics they have to do, also, many more GPs these days are female. Working freelance as a locum can offer those with families a much better work-life balance.”

Although locums are skilled to the same extent as other doctors, lots of people are reluctant to perceive the stand-in. This is perhaps because locums tend to make the spotlight only when things go wrong. Though the General Medical Council didn’t gather figures about objections against GP Locums, experts believe public perception is that numbers are high.

‘This idea that locums are somehow second-rate doctors is unfair,’ says Dr Fieldhouse. ‘I hear so much about patients wanting continuity of care — which is true — but with continuity can sometimes comes complacency. If a GP is seeing a patient repeatedly about a problem, it can sometimes be hard to spot what is wrong because the changes creep up over time. A locum might walk in and spot it straight away. They may also find it easier to say a difficult thing such as the patient needs to lose weight or give up smoking.”

Deputy Chairman of the British Medical Association’s General Practice Committee, Dr Richard Vautry, concurs that sometimes considering a different doctor/opinion, whether from within the practice or somewhere else, can be a good thing.

Further, Shehnaz Somjee, a surgeon and chair of the Locum Doctors’ Association, a professional body representing 4,000 locums, state that locums or stand-in doctors are frequently subject to more careful scrutiny than regular GPs. “Locums have to prove themselves in every job. When you start a new post, all the other staff eyes your work through the microscope. If any slight mistake is made, it creates immediate alarm. I know one locum who, because of his wide experience in different general practices, was able to spot an adverse drug reaction when the patient’s own doctor failed to do so.”

Your World Healthcare UK is a leading healthcare recruitment agency and supplies quality professionals to wide ranging private and public organisations. Our experienced GP recruitment consultants have an impressive track record of successfully placing locums in surgeries, prisons and the Armed Forces.

For more detail please Visit our job board at http://www.yourworldhealthcare.co.uk/medical-vacancies/gp_locums/.

Occupational Therapists - Serving Autism!

In general diagnosed around age of 3, Autism is a disorder related to the development and growth of children. It affects collaborative brain functions and influences areas that control social behaviour and communication skills of those affected. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, an international institute established by President John F. Kennedy, with the support of congress, in 1962 to study the "complex process of human development from conception to old age", uses the term autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) to refer to a group of disorders that include autistic behaviour (also known as classic autism), asperger syndrome, and pervasive developmental disorders not otherwise specified (also called atypical autism).
How Occupational Therapists can help Individuals suffering from Autism?

Focused on improving participation in the performance of activities of daily living such as feeding and dressing, Occupational therapy services support instrumental activities, education, work, leisure, and social collaboration. Based on individual situation, person’s need, and desired objectives, occupational therapy services are custom designed for individuals with an ASD. These services include evaluation, intervention, and measurement of outcomes. To conduct these activities, it is important to understand the daily living experiences of the individual with autism and those with whom he or she collaborates – including family, caregivers, instructors, friends, and other supporters.
Occupational therapy focuses on:
•    Personal Development
•    Quality of life
•    Needs of the Family
The evaluation process involves designs to gain understanding of the person’s unique skills, strengths, and challenges while engaging in routine activities or occupations. The intervention process, based on the outcomes of the evaluation, determines strategies to help individual maximise his/her abilities to participate in daily activities at home, school (if relevant), work, and in the community environment. Successful or productive results are noted through increased performance, improved adaption, and enhanced participation in essential or meaningful routine activities, patient satisfaction, improved health and wellness, and successful transitions to new environment and roles.  The factors can also assist individual, family members, and OT team to appreciate accomplishments, transfer focus and review priorities of the intervention plan if required.
Occupational Therapy Practitioners help people suffering from Autism to adjust activities and conditions to match their requirements and capabilities. Such help may include adapting the environment for those with autism to minimise external distractions, finding them custom designed computer software that are able to facilitate communication, and recognising skills people need to address challenges or accomplish certain routine tasks.
These occupational therapy services are provided in the settings where patients engage in daily living activities such as child care centre, preschool, school, home, workplace, and adult care centres, etc. The role of the occupational therapist may be as a provider of direct services as a consultant or a coach to educators, corporate workers, teams, and family members.

Looking for a career opportunity in occupational therapy? Visit Your World Healthcare UK at http://www.yourworldhealthcare.co.uk/ or contact our specialist job consultants at 020 7220 0811.

Remedies to address national shortage of Sonographers in the UK!

Sonographers equip hospitals with a diagnostic service through an imaging test, known as ultrasound, which sends vibrations to a part of the body and receives them back again to report the potential unusual behaviour, if exists. Due to the common use of ultrasound to provide images of babies in the womb, most people are aware of its use in pregnancy but ultrasound imaging is not just limited to that. It is widely used in other hospital departments to detect invisible flaws. However, in recent times, UK is facing a nationwide shortage of qualified Sonographers, leading to stern difficulties for several NHS trusts and health care associations in meeting growing demand, designated targets and deliverance of the national obstetric and vascular screening initiatives.
 

Recent national protocols relating to, for instance, stroke management and the post ‘NHS Next Stage Review’ insist on making ultrasound imaging services available for primary care, adding to the shortage problem. Increasing workload pressures on Sonographers mean complex service demands, leading to a barrier for them to tend their personal wellbeing in the workplace effectively and commence continuous professional development activities. These several factors are contributing to an increase in the number of Sonographers taking early retirement, reducing their work hours, or leaving the service completely. Further, the reported incidence of musculo-skeletal injury is growing. Existing Sonographers in development process are hardly synchronised with wastage and there is little scope for more training and professional development programs even though the demand is clear.

To address this problem, here are some suggestions from the society and college of radiographers to develop and acquire consistent sonographer workforce in the UK: 

·         Introducing First Degree Direct Entry

There is much evidence that there is a strong demand for first degree direct entry programme, leading to BSc (Hons) Medical Ultrasound. The establishment of a primary direct entry degree has the prospect to attract a wide range of applicants interested in pursuing a career in sonographic studies. Such programmes would be delivered by existing universities and students may be eligible for scholarships as are diagnostic and therapeutic radiography undergraduates, limiting direct costs to NHS and health boards.

·         Postgraduate Direct Entry

The program is likely to be popular with a wide range of primary degree qualified applicants. The postgraduate direct entry, leading to PGC/PGD/MSc already exist in truth but is under-recognised and under-utilised. Depending on the availability of clinical placements, it has the potential to allow for a number of graduates. These programmes can be endorsed subsequent to established CASE procedures, giving assurance to employers and the active ultrasound workforce.

·         Distance Learning Programme

For delivering both direct entry first degrees and higher degrees to develop the sonography workforce, distance learning programme is a viable option. Some universities have used this feature to deliver education and development options at higher degree level in the past. It will be made essential for the students to have a clinical placement during the course of the program and could be delivered together with more conventional training programmes.

Your World is the leading healthcare recruitment agency in UK. Our busy Radiography desk has grown dramatically over the last few years. We now have an exceptional choice of roles in both the NHS and private sector. 

Register with us to apply for radiography jobs or to find qualified radiographers. http://www.yourworldhealthcare.co.uk/medical-vacancies/radiography/

New research reveals kid’s headaches aren’t generally due to visual problems

Eye problems are widely assumed to be the major reason for frequent headaches in kids.  When a child reports recurring headache during their school work, parents assume that their child is suffering from a visual problem or needs a vision correction, consequently, they request that their doctors refer their child for an eye exam. However, a new retrospective review of the medical records of 158 children below the age of 18 who were observed for frequent headaches at the ophthalmology clinic reveals that visual problems are seldom the cause of recurring headaches in children, even if the regular headache seems to occur when the child is performing visual activities or doing academic work.

The research was presented in November, 2012 by a team of Pediatric Ophthalmologists at Albany Medical Center in New York, at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting in Chicago.

Researchers concluded, even though 14% of the children accounted that their headaches occurred while doing visual tasks such as school home work and around 9% reported visual symptoms associated with their headaches, visual problem did not appear to be the prime reason or a factor in any of these cases. In addition, follow up reports from parents validated the research findings.  Parents indicated that headaches improved in 76.4% of all children, including those who did not get vision correction as well as those who did. Moreover, new prescriptions did not make it more probable that the children's headaches would reduce. 

During this research, it was observed that about 30% of the children had visual conditions that went beyond the need for correction in vision. These conditions included strabismus, amblyopia and other more serious situations. Though the research was a retrospective study, Pediatric Ophthalmologists were not able to make connections between these factors and the cause of headache.

Dr. Zachary Roth, who led the research team, commented, “We hope our study will help reassure parents that, in most cases, their children’s headaches are not related to vision or eye problems, and that most headaches will clear up in time.”

However, optometry research does not sound logical for optometrists who often treat children  with visual issues.  Professor of pediatrics/binocular vision at Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago, Dominick Maino, suggests that the study did not consider the binocular vision system beyond strabismus and ignored assessment of accommodation. This is unfortunate, according to Dr. Miano, because most of the research published in this area suggests that accommodation plays an important role in headaches experienced by patients.

Your World UK offers specialist Optometry recruitment consultants. To find optometry jobs in your region, visit us at http://www.yourworldhealthcare.co.uk/medical-vacancies/optometry/