Introduction

This document is the result of four earlier documents, the Guidelines for Professional Working Practice, published in December 1993, the Guidelines for Professional Working Practice - Reporting, in April 1995, the Guidelines for Professional Working Standards, August 1996 and the first Guidelines for Professional Working Standards - Ultrasound published in October 2001.

Consultations were held with sonographers in centres throughout the UK during the revision process in order to collect a range of current ultrasound practice evidence to inform the changes. Contributions were obtained from other ultrasound bodies in support of the document. These professional working standards, which are not prescriptive, are made available to sonographers to be used as guidelines for good practice. Since the publication of the Guidelines for Professional Working Standards in 1996, service provision, technology and patient expectations in medical ultrasound have been transformed. For this reason, the examination specific section has been changed to present generic statements in order to provide a basis on which departments can generate their own procedures and protocols. In response to considerable queries from sonographers related to practice issues, a new section has been introduced to offer guidance. In addition, sonographers are advised to access additional documents such as occupational standards for medical ultrasound(1) and skills-for-health statements(2) in order to inform local departmental procedures.

It is becoming increasingly common practice to identify and write standards in an outcome-based format rather than to provide prescriptive statements of ‘how to do’ or ‘what to measure’.

An example might be:

...on completion of the general ultrasound examination, the sonographer must be able to demonstrate that a competent assessment of the patient has been undertaken to match the clinical request by the acquisition of appropriate images and a conclusive written report...

After consideration and reviewing the work undertaken with sonographers during this review process, it has been decided, that whilst acknowledging this development places individual accountability on each practitioner for the examinations that they undertake, to retain the original style for the standard statements would be more appropriate at this time.

Reporting examples have been preserved at the request of sonographers. However it is recommended that they are used for guidance purposes only as many departments have introduced their own reporting procedures that reflect local practice.

The terms patient and client in some sections are interchangeable. For ease of reading, the term patient has been used throughout this document. Several titles are used by health care professionals who practise ultrasound. The title sonographer has been utilised to represent any practitioner carrying out an ultrasound examination.

The use of texts, peer-reviewed material and web-sites has been kept to a minimum as currency of such material is likely to be limited by continual changes in the practice area. This aligns with current opinion. It is the responsibility of the reader and user to ensure that they research and apply the most up to date evidence in association with the contents of this document. At the time of publication all references stated are accurate.

The Trustees would like to acknowledge the contributions made by Gillian Allinson, Jean Carter, Liz Chapman, Jeanette Clewes, Katy Cook, Anne-Marie Dixon, Theresa Fail, Andrew Fairhead, Kath Gration, Alison Hall, Crispian Oates, Steve Savage, Simon Thoroughgood and the sonographers who attended the workshops.

Trish Chudleigh, Rosemary Lee, Wendy Williams, Jean Wilson - UKAS Committee, October 2008

References

1. The University of Hertfordshire and Prime Research and Development Ltd. (1998). Occupational Standards for Diagnostic Ultrasound. London: The College of Radiographers and South and West Regional Office of the NHSE.
2. http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/page/competences/competences-projects-...

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