Radiographer (diagnostic)
Addenbrookes Hospital

Alex J

00:00:01 My name’s Alex J and I’m one of the Diagnostic Radiographers here at Addenbrookes. Diagnostic means we take X-Rays of people who come through, and we have to cover theatre work, and we have to do mobile X-Rays, so if the patient’s too ill to come to us, then we go out into the hospital and do the X-Rays there.

00:00:20 At school I would say I was pretty much middle of the road, I was in all the middle sets. When I was doing my A-Levels I really liked the idea of teaching, and I really loved Drama and English. So I went away to Uni with the idea of doing that, which please my parents. But halfway through the course a housemate of mine was looking at doing nursing because he was fed up with what he was doing – it sounds a bit sort of cliché and easy to say, but to do something that would make a difference. And it kind of – it did strike a bit of a chord. That’s how I ended up working as a Health Care Assistant, ’cause I’d get some experience before my nursing application went through. When I started in Radiography it wasn’t a sort of an epiphany of mine. I got told about it by a patient I was caring for.

00:01:02 I worked in a care home and she was a patient who was on my floor. She was an incredibly outspoken lady. She suggested it because she saw in the News that there was a shortage of Radiographers. And I’d never heard of it and thought I’d look into it, and it’s her I’ve got to thank for being here, and I genuinely mean that, that’s probably my most inspirational person career-wise who’s helped.

00:01:24 I think the route I took definitely suited me, just because I think if I’d have gone straight in at eighteen, necessarily I don’t know whether I’d have stuck it. It’s quite a – well it can be quite hands on, and a lot of, mainly colleagues who I trained with, initially found that quite difficult. And I definitely would say now my previous kind of drama has helped, because in some ways it is a performance. You deal with quite a variety of people through the day, and I think it kind of helps to have that confidence to be able to talk to anyone and to step up and say what you have to.

00:02:01 In ten years time, hopefully running my own department in the south country. I myself would say out of doors, I spend most of my time down there, any free time’s in Cornwall. So that’s the idea, get down there. I’ve got a young son – I’d like to bring him up down there.

00:02:17 It’s great to work with such a varied bunch at different levels as well because it kind of helps you raise your game really, you really do get to see a lot of things. And no patient’s ever the same, no case is ever the same. And there’s the variety of work, as I was saying I mean we could be up in theatre or on the ward doing an X-Ray or down in the Department. And I think it’s the variety that keeps you going really.

00:02:39 ENDS