Ethics for Healthcare Professionals in Radiography: An African Perspective

The radiography profession is complex and presents multiple layers of possible ethical issues and dilemmas. This chapter presents some of the challenges faced by radiography practitioners in Africa and addresses selected ethical issues that capture the diversity of the countries on the continent from an African perspective. The discussions in this chapter include the following: governance of imaging and therapeutic services within diverse socio-economic environments, equitable access, issues pertaining to inherent risks and harm from a regulatory perspective, matters related to justification of referrals and effective utilisation of imaging services, the importance of effectively relaying messages and interacting within a multilingual context, the ethical principle of beneficence and the ethical standard of informed consent.

African nations are generally considered to be developing economically and might be considered as emerging societies in terms of the awareness of ethics. This includes developing awareness of the ethical dimensions of health and health care among those in the profession of radiography. This is evident in the introduction of continuous professional development in some countries. In several cases it includes continuing education units specifically allocated to learning in ethics. To enable an ethical service in radiation medicine the recommendation is to use a phased approach of increasing collaboration and a collective approach that commences from the relevant regulatory bodies that oversee monitoring of ionising and non-ionising radiation to manage the risks to the patient, radiology personnel and the public.