r/RadiographyUK

I am an 18-year-old trying to choose between two NHS career paths but I am torn due to physical limitations and career worries.

Option 1: Diagnostic Radiography I want to eventually pursue a career in plain-film reporting as I am okay with physiology, interested in anatomy and can handle the physics. But I afraid that the physical demand would be too much for a 5'3" male with chronic lower back and foot soreness, usually with doing something for a long time. Is the daily physical demand of moving patients, heavy mobiles, standing in lead aprons too brutal for someone like me?

Or Option 2: Healthcare science (Cardiac Physiology) I think I would be way more interested in this as I love the cardiovascular system and the heart and I keep in getting pulled back to this, and thinking of specialising in Echocardiography. However, I feel it might be too repetitive and the constant scanning will cause severe wrist/hand strain over time.

Or Option 3: Cardiac imaging I'm not really sure much about cardiac imaging, one redditor somewhere else pointed out that they wanted to do ECHO as they love the heart but chose to do interventional radiology instead and work in a cath lab, which I think would be great however I just researched it and realized that it's fast-paced which I'm not to sure about.

Has anyone transitioned between these two, or worked in a Cath Lab where both professions meet? Or just want to give any advice. I would love to hear your honest thoughts on the physical demands of both roles. Thanks!

I have an interview coming up can someone help me get the job please I am fed up of attending interview upon interview no luck

Help me out

For context, I have worked in NHS admin for 10-ish years, including as an Appointment Scheduler in Imaging.

I now work as a Band 5 admin worker and it just doesn't light my fire anymore, I somehow feel both burnt out and bored following multiple reorganisations and recruitment freezes (which I know is affecting clinical staff too).

I am aware it's not all roses moving into a clinical role, with the recruitment issues affecting both newly qualifieds and existing stretched staff.

It would realistically take me 4 years to qualify (access course + a degree) at which point i'd be in my mid-late 30's.

Just wondered if anybody:

A) had made the transition from clerical to clinical

and

B) would you recommend a career in radiography?

Thank you!

I have recently graduated and have done five job interviews thus far (Three in London and two outside of London). However, I keep failing these interviews as I feel like the questions I have been given either require a lot of post graduate experience or are presented in a difficult to answer way ( for example: having a five minute rapid fire round for eight image interpretation questions).

I just wanted to know if others are having the same issue?

Hii all ,I qualified last year, and I don’t know if anyone else is in the same position, but I’m yet to find a Band 5 post. I just feel like it’s going to get harder the more time passes.

Hello, so basically I have just finished College where I have come out with a D*D*D in Person BTEC Level 3 National extended diploma in Applied science with UCAS points of 160 and while that far exceeds what I need for many courses.

I want to be able to apply for Cumbria and Salford as those are good universities within a close range which is pretty important. But unfortunately I do not have the required GCSEs as I have a combined science of 5-4, which is just short of the 5 that they need.

I'm not sure whether I'll be accepted because my college grades definitely exceed what they want but universities are always picky about GCSEs for some reason which is why I was rejected form Salford last year I applied. I was going to reapply to Cumbria this year which was going good until I found out that they were going to increase their GCSE requirements to a 5 for the 2027 entry so obviously I'm bummed out about that.

I'm currently stressing out about this with my family right now and am not so sure what to do. I could retake my GCSEs or I could call up Cumbria clearing for their integrated foundation year and do that. Or anything else that can help me.

I am planning on calling the universities tomorrow to discuss whether I can still get on with the qualifications I have now or is my GCSE holding me back. And if there's no other option then my dad suggested to go to college and talk about retaking my combined science GCSE.

(I also have a GCSE 4 in English but Salford only mentioned the combined science last year when they rejected me so I'm not sure if that matters or not)

Pls help ASAP, as I am afraid that foundation year will be filled up if I don't make a choice soon.

Edit: Called up universities to ask about entry requirements:
Salford said no but I sent an email just to make sure
Cumbria said that my science GCSE was actually fine but my English which is a 4 needs to be retaken
And Liverpool said I need to retake both English and Science

Hi, I want to ask some questions for current uni students who study diagnostic radiography at the Uni of Leeds. How is the teaching like (is it interesting, are the staff nice), how far are clinical placements and when do you usually get sent (are the staff nice) and when do you get your holidays (are they the same as people on other courses)? If you could let me know, it would be really helpful. Thanks

I am a Diagnostic Radiography student but i really don’t want to work full time in the future, especially as at some point I will probably have kids. Is it realistic and possible to only work part time eg only 3 days a week? Is it easier for MRI or CT radiographers to work flexible?

Also is it possible to not work night shifts at all? I don’t want to pursue work that will make me unhappy or unhealthy and come across as a nightmare employee to hospitals, hence why i am considering leaving this course altogether.

Hi, I've been a radiographer with the nhs for 4 years. But it's been a bit tight with cost of living. I was thinking about moving to London and do locuming full time. I was curious on your thoughts. Will there be job security doing that? If not will it be easy to find another job? Whether it's worth it.

Thanks,

As someone who will begin in September, fully aware of the job shortage within the NHS what would you do/have done different in order to increase your chances of employment?

Hi there,

I am a chemistry major in my senior year, and I am thinking about what to do post-graduation. Last year, I took a course in NMR spectroscopy, and it was my absolute favorite class I've taken; I loved learning about the theory on how it works on a quantum level and using the instrument.

I'm interested in dedicating my further education/career to NMR, and I know that MRI is essentially NMR, so I am thinking about a career in MRIs. I was wondering what further education I should get, and what job opportunities would be available to me. Should I be trying to get a master's degree in "medical imagining" or "radiology"? Would a PhD be better? Also, what career paths would be available to me? I haven't done much research on what being a radiologist is like day to day. Am I essentially just helping patients into the MRI and interpreting spectra, or is there more to it? Also are their jobs related to MRI other than what I just said, like ones that deal with like repairing or maintaining MRIs?

I just got my a level results and I was wondering if they are good enough to get into a good university for radiography

Information technology (IT) - distinction

statistics - b
psychology - c

most universities i see want bbb (120 ucas) which my results are however some universities dont accept psychology as a science so i was wondering what is a good university that i could get into

also if anyone could explain what the difference between a diagnostic radiographer and radiographer is i searched it on google and apparently the diagnostic radiographer is the person who takes the images and the radiographer is the person who interprets them however to me that seems counter intuitive since diagnostic would infer they are diagnosing not just operating the machine

Radiology

Back ground context I’m 18f starting uni in September, I feel like this is the classic question but I wanted answers from people who have done/doing this course. I’m unsure of whether to get a laptop(I have one but it’s heavy and I’d most likely try to sell it and get something different) or an iPad. I’ve seen pros and cons to both but I wanted to get some answers from students,
Any advice and help appreciated thankyou!

These are my options right now, I’m being told conflicting answers by most unis and was curious if anyone has gone through this pathway?

I’ve been offered a foundation year for BCU diagnostic radiography.Is anyone else doing this course or can someone who has done a foundation year tell me what to expect?

I’m a recent graduate from outside the UK. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Radiologic Science and completed a one-year internship. I haven’t worked in a permanent/full-time position yet. If I apply for HCPC registration as a radiographer, am I likely to be accepted?

Hi , i’m going into 6 form and i really wanna have a future in sonography but im unsure which subjects i should pick. i was thinking : bio , chem and psycology or maybe another subjects instead of chem since i’ve heard it’s pretty difficult. I’m not very good at physics nor do i think i’ll get the grade for it so i’m not very keen on it .
If anyone could give me any suggestions on what they picked or what they think is good that would be really helpful.
Thank you!!

Hello as you may know a level results day is tomorrow.

Portsmouth university is my firm choice however I also have another plan if in the event I exceed my results I may enter clearing for Radiography at Cardiff university which is one of the best in the UK.

I was wondering will there be a mini interview during clearing and if there is I’m thinking it won’t be very specific like a formal interview where they ask like
‘ oh what would u do if this patient came in’
because what are the chances my clearing person is a radiographer I’m thinking it may just be general like ‘ why pick radiographer’ and ‘ why Cardiff university’

Anyways can someone help me this. Thanks!

Hi! I’m due to start my pre-reg MSc in January and I was just wondering how people managed their finances throughout their studies. For context, I work full time as a data manager which pays ok but I will definitely take a hit to how much money I will have even with student finance and the NHS learning support fund, so I was wondering how people managed or what kind of jobs people took up as I assume not many places will be happy to only have you as part time or not at all during placement weeks.

I guess I also just wanted advice on whether working is recommended at all during the masters as I know it’s quite full on so I’m trying to decide if I will look for something or attempt to be extra frugal 😅