The effectiveness of continuing professional development of radiographers in St. Luke's Hospital.

Abstract

Obstetric ultrasound screening is currently an almost universal procedure of antenatal care provision. Despite the beneficial psychological effects that have been attributed to ultrasound screening as it promotes reassurance and anxiety alleviation of the pregnant women, increased levels of anxiety were also reported. These contradictory observations motivated the researcher to evaluate anxiety levels, using the ST AI questionnaire as a research tool, on a consecutive series of 15 women, undergoing obstetric ultrasound screening at Gozo General Hospital. The study demonstrated that ultrasound screening significantly reduced pregnant women's level of state anxiety. For trait anxiety measures, such significant reduction did not occur. This is consistent with the conceptual difference that exists between state and trait anxiety. Moreover, the prospect of the ultrasound screening examination had not resulted in an increase in anxiety (pre-scan state) when compared with the women's general stable emotional state (pre-scan trait). Finally, no significant linear relationship did emerge between the significant reduction in state anxiety registered and women demographic data. The researcher concluded that, on the basis of this research study, there is no evidence that ultrasound screening during pregnancy causes maternal anxiety, but rather that it relieves it. However, the researcher recommends that this study should be repeated using a larger sample size to produce more statistically significant results and thus firm conclusions can be drawn.