How to proceed when you don’t want to be a diagnostic radiographer anymore? What alternative jobs) or side Jobs) are there for radiographers.
Every month, I hear thousands of radiographers seek information on this topic on the internet all over different countries in the world.
Personally, being a diagnostic radiographer who enjoys this profession since being qualified and working as a radiographer for the NHS now since 2018.
I appreciate many aspects of our profession and I have not reached a sense of losing interest in the job role. I wake up every day looking forward to going to work.😃
But this does not mean there are no aspects I’m less fond of. Therefore, I have chosen the option of having a thought about what else I can do outside my profession before I reach burnout and having a thought of changing my career.
In this article I have decided to share my experience, research, and thoughts often in discussion with fellow radiographers about career change when you are initially a diagnostic radiographer.
My goal is not to convince you to change careers because I am also a radiographer champion career advocate, who goes around schools in England, talking to students to join the radiography profession. I have also managed to speak to two of my friends to join the profession.
I also know there are thousands of reasons to be happy and content to be a diagnostic radiographer, because I have seen people work passionately for over 40 years or more as radiographers.
I simply want to show that there is a way out if you feel trapped in the radiography career.
Any comments or testimonials, let’s meet in the comments section.
Happy reading!🙋
▶️Why consider changing careers when you are a diagnostic radiographer?
According to the research I have done, I have not found any statistics on the number of diagnostic radiographers in the United Kingdom or other countries who wish to change careers.
The only statistics I saw are the number of people wanting to join the radiography!💁
But for some reason the topic comes up regularly in our everyday settings in work and outside work, on social media platforms.
I have seen a few radiographers who have changed professionally completely and I believe every radiographer has at least one example of a colleague who has made a career change.
Another point to consider here are a few phrases that are typed into Google by radiographers in the United Kingdom, US and Canada tens of times every month.
Expressions likely searched on Google by radiographers considering a career change!
Changing career or switching paths, is in many ways not common to diagnostic radiographers.
There can be many reasons why people choose to change their career path after working in healthcare and I believe they consider all the options before making that change.
I have found some realistic data that could be a pointing factor why radiographers decide to change profession when you are a radiographer.
But before I list some of the reasons that may force some radiographers to change careers.
Let’s first see some of the advantages of being a diagnostic radiographer.
▶️Why a diagnostic radiography career is a good profession compared to other healthcare professionals.
🟠Job security: At the time I’m writing this, A recent survey of radiographers found 94% of respondents had vacant posts for diagnostic radiographers in their departments in the United Kingdom, while national the average vacancy rate for radiographers is 12.7%. so, you are always on demand.
🟠 Salary: A common reason that people become radiographers is due to the decent salary. The amount varies based on where you live and work in the world.
⏭️ In the United Kingdom the average radiographer salary is £37,941 per year, Entry level positions start at £32,912 per year while most experienced workers make up to £53,152 per year.
⏯️In the US the average radiographer salary is $71,175 Annual
⏭️In Canada the average salary for a Radiographer is CA$64,929 per year
⏭️In Australia the average salary of a radiographer is $88,000 per year
⏭️In France the average salary is around 83,300 EUR per year, and this can range from the lowest average salary of about 40,000 EUR to the highest average salary of 132,000 EUR.
⏭️In German the average salary for radiographers is €51,500 per year.
This experience you have. In addition to this salary, most of the time comes with common benefits including health insurance, dental insurance, life insurance and retirement savings plans.
🟠Rewarding work: As a radiographer, you spend your days assisting patients. You help them feel more at ease regarding their examinations and answer questions for them about the tests. For Some radiographers this is very rewarding and most of the time they also get good patient feedback appreciating their services and care.
🟠Geographic mobility: You can decide to work as a locum radiographer which gives you mobility to move to different locations and countries. You have an option to work with different populations, children, elderly, private and public hospitals.
▶️ Reasons given by diagnostic radiography who want to change profession.
Most of the radiographers who want to change careers always believe that working as a radiographer is immensely very rewarding as we have discussed above.
But also working in the health care sector can sometimes also come with many challenges for a radiographer.
🟠 Busy and understaffed: It is often the case that radiographers find themselves working in busy, understaffed, and under-resourced environments that involve dealing with emotionally charged and stressful situations sometimes.
🟠Unsociable hours: The work can also come with unsociable hours and long shifts, which over time can take its toll on your wellbeing leading to burnout.
This is a topic that comes up a lot within the health and social care sector. It is caused by long term exposure to mental, emotional, and physical stressors and it is characterised by feelings of:
🟤Frequent tiredness.
🟤Deflation.
🟤Feeling trapped and lacking a sense of personal achievement.
It can be hard to find the time to dedicate to personal and professional development because of these stressors increasing the desire for one to leave their current role.
Workforce burnout was an issue in the NHS here in the UK and social care workforce long before covid-19 and it needs to be tackled now if we are to attract and retain skilled staff, keep them physically and mentally well, and provide high quality care to patients and service users.
More in the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee producing several reports https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/6158/documents/68766/default/ on the issue.
Let’s not rely on burnout and working conditions to be the only reasons why people decide to change or leave radiography.
🟠Career advancement
A lack of opportunity for career progression may also be an influencing factor when it comes to making a change. As a radiographer, there’s little room for advancement without additional training.
I have seen radiographers being frustrated when they are trying to progress within the profession after trying for many years. Adding their frustration with difficult and busy working conditions they find themselves leaving the professional.
It is important to carefully consider the different routes available to help determine if an alternative role is the right choice for you before you decide to leave the radiography professional completely or transfer your skills to a different role within radiographer.
There are many new and different opportunities under radiography where you can use your transferable skills between roles and departments.
▶️ What are transferable skills radiographers have that you might not know.
These can be skills you have acquired through academic study, workplace training, or through daily tasks and interactions with colleagues, patients, and members of the public.
🟠Communication skills.
🟠Time management.
🟠Collaborative working.
🟠Organisation.
🟠Empathy and compassion.
🟠Problem solving.
🟠Conflict resolution.
🟠Effective listening.
🟠Emotional resilience.
Some of these skills are relevant in a variety of circumstances and can therefore not only be transferred to different job roles, but to different sectors within your role as a radiographer.
▶️10 career ideas where you can leverage your diagnostic radiography skills.
1️⃣Teaching or educating in a radiography university or college.
Mission: You can work in the higher education sector as a lecturer or helping to develop and deliver education programmes for assistant practitioners and those at pre-registration level. You can also assist with continuing professional development from bachelor through doctorate level study.
Salary :Between £42,155 to £53,353 annually depending on skills and experience in the UK
Constraints: Lack of protected time is one of the greatest challenges faced. You need to keep educating yourself because technology changes all the time.
Education: For this role you usually need at least a master’s level qualification. As well as a postgraduate qualification in learning and teaching in higher education
2️⃣Application specialist in radiography technology equipment and theatre essentials like guide wires, plates, and screws.
Mission: After gaining experience, you have the option to work as an application specialist for a medical imaging supplier. Having a working knowledge of radiography technology is essential for this role, with your main responsibility being to provide training to those using imaging equipment.
Salary: Salary: £40,223 per annum (pro-rata), inclusive of London allowance. Salary: £43,205 to £50,585 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.
While in the US The average salary for an application specialist is $70,496 per year and $5,000 cash bonus per year.965 salaries reported
Constraints: You would go around the country teaching other radiographers how to use the new MR/CT/, interventional and theatre guide wires and instruments. It’s a nice role if you don’t mind travelling.
Education: Your radiography degree and working experience should be enough, you will get training on the job, you might need to take short course training in computer science, information science or medical information technology
3️⃣Public speaking or career coach
Mission: conduct educational and career coach in conferences, schools, healthcare sectors and big companies.
Salary: The estimated total pay for a Public Speaking Coach is £31,471 per year, with an average salary of £28,335 per year.
Constraints: lack of general knowledge, lack of speaking practice, fear of mistakes, lack of words usage and grammar practice, low motivation, low participation, reading laziness, shyness, less dictionary usage, nervousness, fear of criticism.
Education: some people are gifted public speakers, if you are not you may have to take communications or education degrees that have provided training and a foundation for speaking, or online or short-term classroom courses to earn coaching qualifications and gain experience.
4️⃣Radiographer manager & clinical lead.
Mission: Moving into leadership or specialised roles like radiology manager, chief technologist, or you can also develop pioneering practice procedures and identify where improvements can be made in service.
Salary: is between £35,000 – £42,000 a year – Permanent, Full-time
Constraints:35,000 – £42,000 a year – Permanent, Full-time
Constraints: Managers typically have more responsibility and answer to more people than other employees, increasing their workload. Managers often balance this by embracing the responsibilities as an opportunity to grow and learning from the challenges they face
Education: Your Radiographer degree is enough, you can acquire some small courses in management and leadership while on the job.
5️⃣Working as a locum radiographer can sometimes reduce burnout and long hours because you can choose which hours you want to work.
Mission: Giving you the option to work within different radiography settings and fields, locum roles provide you with the opportunity to better understand how you want to progress. It allows you to gain experience in areas that align with your interests and work towards strengthening your skillset.
Salary: The average locum radiographer salary in the United Kingdom is £55,575 per year or £28.50 per hour. Entry level positions start at £48,750 per year while most experienced workers make up to £68,250 per year.
Constraint: Locums are paid by the hour, so your income may fluctuate depending on how many shifts you work each month. You may need to organise your own tax payments which can be extra work. There may also be times when there is less work available in your preferred region or department.
Education: Your radiography degree is enough; you can decide to do more small courses in the areas you want to improve
6️⃣Radiation protection officer
Mission: Training to become a radiation protection supervisor in the imaging department. You will be able to meet the Health and Safety Executive criteria of competence, and the necessary experience and expertise to advise on the organisation’s uses of ionising radiation
Salary: £58,972 to £68,525 a year.
Constraint: You may be mobile in different settings.
Education: IRS’s courses for Radiation Protection Supervisors (RPS) helps you receive the necessary core of knowledge instruction in radiation protection to support your role in industrial practices.
7️⃣Research radiographer and health web writer!
Mission: Here, your duties will typically include developing research images, facilitating studies and reviewing evidence.
Within this type of role, you can work in a variety of places, including clinical, academic, or business settings offering solutions for service development to support the career development for other radiography professionals like managers, researchers, and academics.
Write articles on health topics for a website search as NHS, HCPC and owned media outlets, companies, and individuals.
Salary: The estimated total pay for a Research Radiographer is £29,988 per year, with an average salary of £28,494 per year.
Constraint: Primarily a desk job.
Education: Such roles demand additional skills and qualifications, which can be fulfilled through higher research skills and education.
8️⃣Employee in a healthcare marketing and sales recruitment agency
Mission: A marketing recruitment agency is a specialised firm that connects companies with qualified professionals in the field of marketing. These agencies focus on sourcing, screening, and selecting candidates for various healthcare centres and marketing positions, ranging from entry-level to executive roles.
Salary: The average salary for a Healthcare Marketing is £34868 per year in United Kingdom
Constraints: Primarily a desk job.
Education: Having a degree in life sciences or related fields, not having one of those qualifications doesn’t necessarily stand in the way of employment.
9️⃣Other healthcare professionals:
Mission: There are numerous pathways to enter other healthcare professionals if you have a radiography degree. These may include reporting radiographer, Ortho doctor, physiotherapy,
Salary: The starting salary for Band 7 is £38,890 per annum. Locum reporting radiographers can expect to earn an hourly rate of £30-40.
The average salary for an Orthopaedic Surgeon in United Kingdom is £85322
The average salary for an NHS physiotherapy is £39,715 per year
Constraints: It may require training at university for a few years.
Education: You must go through a few years of additional training in addition to your radiography degree.
▶️Radiographers who have completely changed their careers!
I have examples of radiographers who have completely changed their career, I believe you also have examples. They now have jobs that have nothing to do with radiography but still you see their transferable skills in what they are doing now.
⏭️Becoming an entrepreneur business owner
Case study: Jasmin changed her career from a therapy radiographer within the NHS by owning her own business selling moisturisers and creams products that are safe and gentle for particularly individuals going through chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
You can check out her story if you want to know more on this link! motivated.https://www.careershifters.org/success-stories/from-radiography-to-skincare-business
Case study 2: A friend of mine left radiography and joined computer science. He is now a web developer and a data scientist. of course he had to take some training.
Here is a list of professionals that other people in my circle have ventured into after changing careers from radiography.
🔵Influencer
🔵Real estate agents.
🔵Product manager
🔵Stay at home parent.
Some individuals also decide to combine one of these activities with radiography, at least initially to try it out first before they make a final decision.
▶️ 5 Ideas to consider continuing your career as a diagnostic radiographer.
➡️You can work in a private hospital, not as hectic as the public hospital.
➡️Open your own agency recruiting radiographers for public and private hospitals.
➡️Work as a radiographer in the police force.
➡️To reduce burnout, you can try working part time doing locum.
➡️Try to specialise in one radiography modality, it might help you change your mind.
➡️Work as a radiographer in another country such as Dubai, Canada and Australia.
Conclusion: should you quit the radiographer profession?
It is important to carefully consider the different routes available to help determine if an alternative role is the right choice for you before you decide to leave the health radiography professional completely or transfer your skills to a different role within radiographer.
Clearly, it’s not for me to decide for you whether you should quit the radiographer profession!
My suggestion will be for you to look at the reasons behind your wanting to change your career path before making the decision to leave.
Once you identify these reasons, it may be the case of having an honest and open conversation with your manager.
I believe resolutions can be found that can alter the need or desire for you to leave your role.
At the end of the day you will need to meet your financial needs or current commitments and find something to do with your newfound free time.
Take home! Whether the aim is progression, a change of speciality, or to utilise transferable skills away from the sector entirely, there are always options available and alternative paths to take if you are considering a career change from radiography.
The knowledge and experience gained working in healthcare, can become an asset to any future employer.
I hope this article has provided you with some insights! You can share your experience or questions. If you decide to change careers, good luck!🙋
📚Sources:
Makanjee CR, Zhang J, Bergh AM. Roles and Responsibilities in the Transition to Working Independently: A Qualitative Study of Recently Graduated Radiographers’ Perspectives in Australia. J Multidiscipline Healthy. 2023 Aug 28; 16:2471-2483. Doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S416510. PMID: 37664802; PMCID: PMC10473244.
The House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee Workforce burnout and resilience in the NHS and social care Second Report of Session 2021–22, Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 18 May 2021: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/6158/documents/68766/default/
Tay YX, Cai S, Chow HC, Lai C. The needs and concerns of clinical educators in radiography education in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. J Med Imaging Radiat Sci. 2021 Mar;52(1):3-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jmir.2020.10.004. Epub 2020 Oct 19. PMID: 33139232; PMCID: PMC7572088.