An Introduction to Risk Assessment - Level 2

This was part of an EduCare package that the SoR recommends. I thought this would be an excellent way to gain some knowledge and improve my skills in this area. Having recently been offered the position of Lead Forensic Radiographer at my hospital, I need to be fully up-to-date on these procedures. I had noticed that no risk assessment had been done at the hospital up until now, therefore this came in extremely useful.

The presentation starts off with some shocking statistics about health and safety, stating that 32.9 million working days are lost due to work-related ill health. This seems incredibly high, and gives a good rationale as to why risk assessment is important.

I am confident now that I can utilize the five step risk assessment, to identify risks, identify who could be affected, how serious it could be, and how to reduce this risk. And as part of protocol, this would be thoroughly documented.

Hazards I can already identify in forensic imaging include:

• Manual Handling
• Hazardous chemicals
• Psychological effects

I intend to implement these risk assessments at the earliest opportunity.