Effective Communication Between the Student Radiologic Technologist and Patient

The purpose of this study was designed to determine if the perceptions of effective communication between student radiographer and patients are comparable. Effectiveness of communication was evaluated by submitting the source credibility scale to patients and student radiographer. The source credibility scale was divided into two categories each containing seven items referring to the radiology student\u27s character and authoritativeness. The modified version of McCroskey\u27s source credibility scale was administered to 20 radiography students and 114 patients. The radiology student survey contained additional questions to determine situations where communication was challenging and number of formal communication courses. All surveys included demographic information, age, and sex. Statistical tests were completed to determine relationships between responding surveys. The results of this study revealed patients ranked radiology students high in areas of character and authoritativeness. Statistically, radiology students ranked themselves lower in authoritativeness and higher in character. Results of the research revealed no statistically significant relationship between sex of the technologists and positive response of the survey, or between number of formal communication courses and positive response of the patient surveys