Section 5: Professional guidelines

5.1 Continuing Profesional Development (CPD)

Continuing professional development:

“...is the process by which health professionals keep updated to meet the needs of patients, the health service, and their own professional development. It includes the continuous acquisition of new knowledge, skills, and attitudes to enable competent practice...”(1)

It is a process that seamlessly continues after the successful completion of a first qualification and lasts throughout a sonographer’s professional life and is embedded in the NHS clinical governance strategy. (Refer to Section 4.1)

According to Bates, Deane and Lindsell in 2003(2), all staff must have access to continuing professional development.

Sonographers are obliged to maintain a record of their professional activities(3) and submit it and other suitable evidence to the regulatory or professional body if requested. Activities that may be used as evidence can be defined as:

• successfully completing a postgraduate educational programme of study
• attendance at and participation in appropriate professional workshops and conferences
• defining and implementing a departmental audit programme
• implementing a change process in practice
• mentoring an ultrasound student in practice
• participation in an ultrasound or professional research project
• attendance at and participation in inter-departmental case review
• submission of a paper to a peer-reviewed journal
• critical evaluation of a peer-reviewed research paper
• lecturing to peers and students both formally and informally
• involvement with a professional ultrasound group or scientific society
• promoting the practice of ultrasound to other health care colleagues within a wider sphere

It is important that suitable records are maintained and evidence is compiled on a regular basis. Evidence should not only include attendance certificates at events but also written records of personal learning and reflection. 

References

1. Peck, C., McCall , M., McLaren, B,. Rotem, T. (2000). British Medical Journal. 320(7232): 432-435. (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1117549)
2. http://www.bmus.org
3. United Kingdom Association of Sonographers. (2008) Code of Professional Conduct. London: UKAS.

Additional Reading

• The Society of Radiographers. (2003). A Strategy for Continuing Professional Development. London: CoR.

5.2 Code Of Profesional Conduct For Sonographers

Introduction

A Code of Practice can be defined as a set of conventional principles and expectations that are considered binding on any person who is a member of a particular group. (WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University accessed 19 July 2007). It is designed to cover all circumstances, written in broad terms, expressing ethical principles.

The Code of Professional Practice for Sonographers issued by the United Kingdom Association of Sonographers (UKAS) has been compiled to offer guidance to all health care practitioners who participate in the practice of medical ultrasound.

This document replaces all previous publications of the Code and has been reviewed to coincide with the publication of the 2nd edition of the Guidelines for Professional Working Standards (2008). It closely reflects the statements made in March 2004 which have seen no major changes. Codes 11 and 12 have been added to reflect the expanding practice of ultrasound in all areas of health care and Institutions of Higher Education policy.

The statements, that reflect best practice, are to be a guide and offer advice to sonographers, educationalists, students of medical ultrasound and other health care practitioners. They are statements of professional conduct that reflect the individual’s rights, local and national changing patterns of ultrasound service delivery and the requirement of sonographers to demonstrate continuing competency through personal and professional development.

The Code of Practice for Sonographers

1. Sonographers have a duty of care to their patients, patients and carers and to the minimisation of ultrasound exposure consistent with diagnostic needs.
2. Sonographers are ethically and legally obliged to hold in confidence any information acquired as a result of their professional and clinical duties, except where there is a legal obligation for disclosure.
3. Sonographers must be committed to the provision of a quality ultrasound service having due regard for the legislation and established codes of practice related to health care provision in order to minimise risk to patients, patients, carers and other professionals.
4. Sonographers are legally and professionally accountable for their own practice and must not be influenced by any form of discrimination.
5. Sonographers must identify limitations in their practice and request training and support to meet their perceived needs.
6. Sonographers will take all reasonable opportunity to maintain and improve their knowledge and professional competency and that of their peers and students.
7. Sonographers must pay due regard to the way in which they are remunerated for their work.
8. Sonographers have a duty of care to work collaboratively and in co-operation with the multidisciplinary health care team in the interests of their patients and patients.
9. Sonographers must act at all times in such a manner as to justify public trust and confidence, to uphold and enhance the reputation of sonography and serve the public interest.
10. Sonographers must ensure that unethical conduct and any circumstances where patients and others are at risk are reported to the appropriate authority.
11. Sonographers who are held accountable in another area of health care must relate this Code to others that govern their practice.
12. Student sonographers pursuing a qualification in medical ultrasound must adhere to their Universities’ Codes of Conduct that relate to all elements of their ultrasound education and training.

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