Evaluation of Knowledge and Practice of Radiographers and Operating Room Personnel about Radiation Protection: Importance of Training Courses

Awareness of personnel who are professionally involved with ionizing radiation on the principles of radiation protection is very important; especially for operation room personnel, because they do not receive radiation protection training during their university education in Iran. The aim of this study was to evaluate knowledge and practice of radiographers and operating room personnel about the principles of radiation protection.

A validated researcher-made questionnaire was used and the study was conducted on 328 medical staff in 2021. Factors such as age, gender, university degree, working years, occupation, and knowledge and practice about radiation protection were recorded. The collected data were analyzed by independent t-test and Pearson correlation analysis using SPSS software.

The results of the study showed that age, gender and university degree have no significant effect on the knowledge and practice of radiographers and operating room personnel (p > 0.05). The knowledge and practice of radiographers were significantly higher than operating room personnel (p < 0.05). With regard to working years, there were significant relationships with the knowledge of personnel (p= 0.034), and with practice (p= 0.038). There was a significant correlation between passed training courses of radiation protection and knowledge (p=0.012), and practice (p=0.033). There was a significant correlation between knowledge about radiation protection and practice (p=0.002).

It is necessary to encourage staff with lower working years and operating room personnel to participate in radiation protection courses and workshops. It can be suggested to add training programs about radiation protection in university education or in-service education for operating room personnel.