Fawkham Manor Hospital Essay Example

12 years of training.

Surgeons undergo a similar process as physicians, including studying a 3-year degree and then obtaining a 5-year degree in medicine and surgery. After completing medical school, they pursue specialty training in surgery. For further reading on reflection, check out this practice question: reflection is defined as light bouncing off of a surface.

What is radiology/radiography? It is a branch of medicine that focuses on capturing images of the body for diagnostic purposes using advanced machinery like ultrasound, X-ray, CT scans, and MRIs. Nurses play a vital role in hospitals by assisting doctors and providing patient care. Although nurses in Fawkham have smaller patient loads, their job can still be stressful.

Radiology is a crucial aspect of any hospital, as radiographers play an essential role in diagnosing patients for conditions like tumors. The medical practitioners rely heavily on the images provided by the radiographer to make accurate diagnoses.

There are two types of radiographers: Therapeutic radiographers who use radiotherapy to treat cancer, using a variety of techniques like CT simulations and moulding. Diagnostic radiographers specialize in capturing high quality images of patients with different equipment such as MRI machines and CT scanners. Radiography began with the discovery of the X-ray by William Roentgen during his experiments observing the effect of vacuum tubes. He found that his cathode tubes caused an invisible fluorescence in barium platincynaide-painted cardboard near an aluminum window.

On the following day, the scientist conducted a repetition of the experiment to examine Hittorf Crookes tube. To

create an electrostatic charge, he connected electrodes to a coil. As he continued with the experiment, he observed a shimmering effect about a meter from the coil. Despite making several discharges, the shimmering effect persisted.

He spent the whole weekend observing the properties of a ray he believed to be new before naming it the X-ray. This led to scientists safely examining internal human organs, including during WW2 for thyroid disease. In the 1950s, mammography was utilized by a medical doctor to screen women for breast cancer with great success. The introduction of ultra scanners also occurred in this decade. Subsequently, MRI and CT scanners emerged in the 1960s and beyond.

The use of CT scans in medicine has been a significant advancement that has helped save countless lives. These scans employ wave technology to scan various body parts and generate detailed images. A circular rotating mechanism utilizing multiple x-rays produces tomographs, which enable doctors to diagnose patients with a range of conditions such as bone disease, tumors, and other health problems. CT scans are also beneficial for creating body maps and typically require 10 to 30 minutes for completion.

For security reasons, the staff typically exit the room and communicate with the patient via telecom during CT scans. An alternative option is spiral scans where a single x-ray continuously captures details of the patient's body. While CT scans are generally safe and cause minimal discomfort, the low dose of x-rays is believed to pose little risk. X-ray machines are utilized to create bone images by emitting x-rays.

According to the principle, our bones absorb x-rays, which are a form of electro-magnetic energy consisting of highly energized particles called

photons. These same photons also make up visible light, but with much lower energy levels compared to x-rays.

When an atom becomes excited and its electrons move to a higher orbit, it becomes unstable and produces X-rays. Later, the electron returns to its original energy state or orbit, resulting in the emission of energy as a photon.

The production of highly energetic x-ray photons that can penetrate deeply through soft tissues requires a significant drop in the electron's energy state. This is due to the fact that particles in skin and tissue are comparatively large and cannot effectively match the massive energy of x-ray photons.

Our bones have a larger size of calcium atoms that match the high energy level of x-ray photons, making them effective at absorbing them. X-ray machines use this understanding practically, with components of a cathode and anode similar to those found in electron guns. The vacuum tube in the machine includes a filament (cathode) heated by an electric current.

When the surface of the filament reaches a high temperature, electrons are propelled towards the anode made of tungsten due to its positive charge. Upon colliding with the tungsten atoms, the collision is forceful enough to expel electrons to space. This results in an electron from a higher energy state descending to a lower position, leading to emission of n x-ray photons. In addition, free electrons roaming in proximity to atomic nuclei also emit x-ray photons due to attraction.

The speeding electron is decelerated by the attraction and undergoes a slight directional alteration, resulting in the generation of an x-ray photon. To prevent the tungsten plate (subject to immense heat) from melting, a motor

underneath it rotates the plate.

X-ray machines have a cathode gel that absorbs heat and a small hole to allow some photons to escape. These photons go through filters and hit the patient, with cameras on the other side recording their patterns. The resulting film is typically negative, with bones appearing white and tissues or organs appearing grey. MRI machines, on the other hand, are made up of various magnets.

The functionality of MRIs relies on the presence of the gradient magnet, primary magnet, and other magnets. The reason behind this is that human bodies are composed of more than 60% water, which consists of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. The hydrogen atoms within water molecules rotate randomly on their axis. Hence, these particles spin in an unpredictable manner.

Essentially, the strong magnetic moments of these atoms are utilized when a strong magnetic field is applied to align them in the direction of the field. The magnets typically used in MRI systems are highly potent, usually measuring at 0.

MRI machines utilize magnets that are significantly stronger than Earth's magnetic field (which has a strength of 0.5 gauss), ranging from 5 Tesla to 2.0 Tesla (with 10,000 gauss in 1 Tesla). There are three distinct types of magnets employed in MRI machines.

You have two types of magnets: resistive and permanent. Resistive magnets produce a magnetic field through coils with an electric current passing through them. They are named resistive because they require a lot of electricity, about 50 kilowatts, due to the wires being resistive. While they are cheap to construct/build, their price can increase significantly when they need to operate

above 0.3 Tesla. On the other hand, permanent magnets have the advantage of being always on, which makes them inexpensive to maintain.

Constructing these magnets is quite challenging, particularly when the machine is functioning at 0.4 tesla. The superconducting magnet is the most frequently utilized magnet due to the limitations of the other two magnets and operates on the same principle as resistive magnets.

The magnet in MRI machines are commonly found in below-zero liquid helium, reducing resistance to zero and facilitating the flow of current. This makes them an economically feasible option and widely used in most MRI machines. This intense magnetic field can be utilized to align the direction of atoms either towards a patient's head or feet.

The cancellation of the single proton in the hydrogen nucleus enables safety in MRI machines. However, if an individual has any metal, even in the form of tattoos, the machines become potentially hazardous. On the other hand, ultra sound serves a wide range of purposes, such as displaying fetal images to first-time parents and detecting vascular defects in the heart. Due to its high frequency, humans cannot perceive ultra sound. At its core, ultra sound relies on the reflection of sound waves, which a computer detects as echoes in an ultra scanner.

Ultra sound waves can pass through liquids like plasma and blood, but when they encounter solid objects such as organs or blood valves, they are reflected. An ultra scanner uses the echoes to generate an image, which is built slowly by a computer. The process typically begins with high frequency sound waves emitted by probes entering the body. The waves bounce off various parts

of the body, including its tissues, and some are reflected back while others keep traveling until they reach a boundary.

After being emitted, the sound waves are returned to the probes. By means of a computer, the distance from the probe to the reflecting boundary point of the sound is calculated. This generates a 2D image displaying the intensities and echoes on the screen. The transducer probe is the central component of an ultrasound scan as it produces and captures the sound waves.

Applying an electrical current to crystals changes their shape and causes vibration or sound waves. Upon hitting the crystals again, the vibration causes the crystals to emit electrical current. Therefore, the same crystals can be reused for emitting vibration.