ABSTRACT

Hospitals are medical institutions that contain a lot of risk factors. One of these factors is that employees are exposed to radiation. The purpose of this study was to examine the awareness stage of radiology technicians in regards to radiation safety and to emphasize the importance of radiation safety in terms of hospital administration.

The study was carried out on 96 radiology technicians employed in hospitals in Kocaeli province, Turkey. Employees were given a survey obtained from a literature review, a questionnaire on radiation awareness by Turkish Society of Radiology, and other related resources. The results were then analyzed.

The majority of the radiology technicians (96.9%) regularly use their personal dosimeters, but only 70.8% of them keep track of the dosimeter results. Usage rates of lead aprons were detected as 26% for both them and their patients. A semantic statistical relation between employees’ use of lead apron and their insistence on the patients’ use was also detected. More than 61.4% of the employees correctly answered more than half of the test questions regarding their radiation knowledge levels and 89.6% of them stated that radiological requirements should be given importance.

Both radiology technicians and hospital administration have very crucial tasks so as to protect healthcare professionals and patients from detrimental effects of radiation. This has irreplaceable importance in diagnosis and treatment in health sector. It has been determined that radiology technicians are qualified in the knowledge level of radiation safety, but they do not pay enough attention to this knowledge in practice.

Keywords: Radiation safety, hospital administration, radiation awareness