Abstract
Globally, the radiography profession plays an important role in the public healthcare domain. The management and strategic performance of radiography departments require meticulous, high-level skilled, and competent managers. For radiography managers, this responsibility may be more complex if there is no collaboration and integration of adequate and aligned skills, executive support, monitoring, and evaluation frameworks. The inability to address and derive responsive solutions to dilemmas may increase anxiety and diminish self-confidence. Substantial literature has shown that there is a need to enhance general management skills, competencies, and developmental support. However, there is little research on the required radiography management skills.
The aim of this cross-sectional qualitative explorative and descriptive phenomenological study was to explore and describe the perceptions of the radiography managers on the management training and skills they require when they are appointed as managers in the public health service. The research s included radiographers that are employed as managers of the Radiography departments in the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) in South Africa. Data was collected through online focus group interviews with a total of twenty-three (23) participants. Data saturation was reached. Qualitative data analysis was conducted using thematic data analysis method. The processing of the interview data required analytical reasoning to determine the themes and conclusive reasoning to relate the themes to the established knowledge that can be utilised to formulate guidelines.
The current study’s findings show the importance of radiography managers acquiring new management skills and competencies to succeed in their new roles. Findings also demonstrate that new managers require management training and support to deal with daily challenges related to their job. Furthermore, the findings confirm the necessity to improve the practical and on-the-job coaching and mentoring of new radiography managers. Guidelines were developed and recommendations were made to mitigate challenges that were discovered in the current study, to improve the experiences and capability of the radiography managers.