An examination of the development of standards, protocols and standard operating procedures in forensic radiography

Forensic Radiography has seen a rapid development over the last 20 years with the evolution of new technologies, but perhaps more significantly development of policy and guidelines for radiographers, the adoption of standards and standard operating procedures and changes in education and training. This thesis explores the author’s contribution to the body of knowledge in this discipline through the use of participatory action research which was undertaken through a sequence of iterative cycles over time. The author, as practitioner-researcher, examined the practice of forensic radiography through these cycles of data gathering, studying a number of different operational situations, each of which presented specific organisational issues requiring resolution. Practitioners and service users as members of the organisational system were active participants in the cyclical process of planning, taking action and evaluating the actions. Longitudinal, cross sectional and case study research designs employed observation and reflection, focus groups and multidisciplinary group discussions, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. These led to collaborative findings and the development of new knowledge that was applied to subsequent situations, which were then further examined and refined within an overarching action research model. The thesis highlights the author’s new contributions to the body of knowledge from the respective studies and resultant publications with specific reference to the development of standards, protocols and standard operating procedures in forensic radiography.