Accreditation - The Consultant Mammographer’s pathway.

By

Dawn McDonald

Consultant Mammographer

Accreditation

• Qualified as a Radiographer in 1998

• Started Breast Screening in 2000

• Started the journey of Advanced Practice (MSc) in 2002

From Radiographer – Consultant Radiographer

• Clinical Breast Examination and Client Communication

From Radiographer – Consultant Radiographer

• Ultrasound

From Radiographer– Consultant Radiographer

• Intervention

From Radiographer – Consultant Radiographer

• Film Reading

From Radiographer – Consultant Radiographer

• Research Module

• Dissertation: Patient anxiety levels around stereotactic core biopsy (immediate versus delayed biopsy).

Accreditation

• The action or process of officially recognizing someone as having a particular status or being qualified to perform a particular activity.

• ‘the accreditation of professionals’ • https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/accreditation

Way of ensuring that you are competent at the appropriate level; how?

• No longer enough to be undertaking only clinical work

Advanced/ Consultant Accreditation - SoR

• Assessment criteria

• Applications for advanced practitioner accreditation are assessed according to the core functions of higher level practice (Department of Health, 2000). These can be evidenced through clinical practice. You should demonstrate expert practice and show progression into the other three (consultant practitioners need to evidence meeting all 4).

• Expert practice

• Professional leadership and consultancy

• Education, training and development

• Practice and service development, research and evaluation

Expert Clinical Practice

– Audit

– PERFORMS

– Breast lead in unit

– lead at MDT meetings

– working with autonomy

Professional Leadership and Consultancy

-Lead radiographer, and taking accountability

-Looking at patient pathways

-working with other modalities

-making decisions to provide the best outcome for patients

-Undertaking Accreditation

Education, Training and Service Development

– Local audit

– Trainer (for radiographers, and radiologists)

– Mentor junior doctors

– Currently working as the breast lead for Ghana, teaching, lecturing etc. local staff —helping them develop their own services

– Assessor for Assistant Practitioners

Research and Evaluation

– Research (presented overseas, and UK)

– Taking responsibility for local audit

• This can lead to a change in local practice

– Contributory author

– Article publications etc.

Mentoring

• “You have a duty to facilitate students and others to develop their competence.”

(Yorkshire and the Humber SHA NHS Trust).

Collect the evidence

CPD Now

Process

– Why? Formal recognition that I was working at the appropriate level

– Everything nowadays is formally documented

– Robustness

– By doing all of the above, stood me in good stead to go through the medical process

Appraisal/Accreditation

Application form

• CPD

• Scope of work

• Significant events

• Complaints/Compliments

• Achievements and challenges

Go through evidence/form

– Takes around hour.

– Go through the evidence.

– Agree on an action plan for next time.

IMPACT

• Positive

• -Realisation that you doing more than you think

• -Professional recognition

• -Order

• Negative (biggest)

• -Impact on your personal time.

Summary

-Determination and motivation – non complacency

-Attend study days etc!

-Use CPD Now – it’s very useful

-Time

-Re-validation

Thank you for listening

dawn.mcdonald1@nhs.net