Thursday, 13 September 2012

Creating new identities

The introduction of hybrid imaging technology has undoubtedly begun to create a new society of members, who only have exposure to an environment whereby anatomical and functional imaging within a single environment is a possibility. 

With this notion in mind, there could be potential disengagement from members of the traditional nuclear medicine community as a new culture of roles, identities and relationships begin to emerge.  Symbolic interactionism is a means of understanding the emergence of new societies  or cultures within an organisation, along with the creation of new language, relics and behaviours. 

This is an important aspect of my research, as I need to understand the potential tensions and conflict within the nuclear medicine community as a whole, as the training needs of all practitioners needs to be considered, not just those who appear to be fully engaging with the technological changes.  So there is a collective need to consider the existing (traditional) nuclear medicine community members, who possess a wealth of experience in terms of undertaking physiological examinations and all of the associated factors (e.g. patient preparation, processing); the emerging workforce who typically would include practitioners who may have some experience with traditional nuclear medicine procedures but are more exposed to working practices involving hybrid techniques.  The final group of practitioners are those coming into the nuclear medicine environment for the first time.  This group of practitioners/ trainees may learn common behaviours from both of the aforementioned groups of practitioners, including the use of specific language, rituals and role development.