Dr Jonathan McConnell

Click the video to watch Jonathan talk about his career.

What is your current role?

I’m the Lead Radiographer for the Yorkshire Imaging Collaborative, which means I work across the Yorkshire region as well as Hull, Goole and North Lincolnshire. This is a key leadership role that requires working with bodies such as the Society of Radiographers (SoR) and Health Education England and across trusts when focusing on local working. I contribute full time to service transformation while maintaining clinical contact. This role builds on a wide range of experience in both the clinical and academic environments of diagnostic practice.

How did you develop the skills and knowledge needed?

I’ve grown expert clinical knowledge as well as leadership and educational expertise getting involved with groups such as the SoR Consultant Radiographers Advisory Group and the College of Radiographers (CoR) Approval and Accreditation Board. I’ve also been a CoR-accredited course reviewer. For over 15 years I’ve contributed to the Radiography journal, including as a special edition guest editor, and other journals as a reviewer. I’ve represented CoR in various projects, including setting the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) spinal imaging standards and the Skills for Health diagnostic imaging national standards. I’ve had over 100 peer-reviewed articles either published or presented at conference, some using my international work experience. Several textbooks that I’ve written, co‐edited or co-authored have been published.

What did you do before taking on this role?

My previous job was as a consultant radiographer. I led a team of advanced practice reporting radiographers (RRs) providing a plain radiograph reporting service for musculoskeletal examinations. This role made demands on my ability to teach as well as research. In fact it covered all four domains of practice. I had overarching strategic input as a subject matter expert for the Scottish Radiology Transformation Programme and NHS Education for Scotland, where role transformation was (and remains) a focus of service development.

As a clinical expert in radiographic reporting, I provided guidance for the development of the RR team and acted as a source of specialist knowledge across the whole of the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board, which serves about 1.2 million people. I taught in all the universities that deliver pre- and postregistration radiography education in Scotland, often with a focus on advanced practice, and have been an external examiner for five universities, covering both pre-registration and postgraduate education. I’ve also been the research lead on multiple studies and encouraged research performance within the various teams I’ve been part of. This has resulted in national and international recognition, culminating in me achieving visiting professor status at Ulster University, where our research team is building a strong profile in digital education and artificial intelligence. This kind of work provided access to academic and clinical experience that has knitted together in my current lead radiographer role.

How did your career in radiography begin?

People are often surprised to hear I do not hold a first degree in radiography, as I qualified in the days of the CoR three-year diploma in 1986. My career has essentially followed two phases – clinical, then academic, and a return to clinical. However, I took any opportunities that arose – for instance, during my training I won student awards in my school of radiography in 1985 and 1986 plus the Yorkshire region in 1985 – to help build my career and reach band 7 equivalence only four years after qualifying.

Some people say, ‘you have to have a plan’, so I made one and stuck to it! This plan involved completing an Open University degree in biomedical sciences soon after qualifying so that I had a wider clinical understanding. I think a further driver was to ensure I had recognisable equivalence with the degree qualification route which the radiographic profession was starting to adopt. I completed postgraduate certificates in reporting and teaching in higher education and my master’s degree before eventually tackling a PhD. My kids tease me about all the letters after my name, but you have to have a hobby, don’t you?

After becoming one of the first reporting radiographers in the UK in 1996, I moved to my first academic role, which resulted in me leading a new satellite school in 2001. I took the chances this offered to be involved in work across European radiography education and eventually moved to New Zealand to become head of department in Christchurch. I continued to take all opportunities offered. A spell in Melbourne, Australia, cemented many of my academic capabilities before a return to the UK, firstly in Aberdeen then to clinical
consultancy in Glasgow in 2013.

What have you gained from your previous experience?

All this experience has given me wide insights and, obtaining a PhD along the way, I have contributed to many projects, whether by publishing, presenting, leading or being a member of the development team. These projects have frequently resulted in policy change and service development. The role I am now in is very exciting – we aim to transform practice across the Yorkshire region – and I can put my experience to good use. It’s hard to believe all the changes that have happened over the course of my career so far, but they are generally for the betterment of healthcare and the increasingly higher expectations and performance required of the role of the radiographer.

What has particularly helped you in your career?

Wherever I have worked, through leadership, insight gained through knowledge building, researching and giving/receiving education, I have benefited from equally forward thinking by those I have worked with, who have enabled a supportive and encouraging environment.

Recognising educational opportunities has been a key component and I’ve been able to gradually build from a CoR diploma at Leeds and add to it at degree and postgraduate level to eventually gain a PhD. This personal development has been a driver, and both an enlightening and challenging experience, as my career has developed. These opportunities have allowed me to gain insight and put it into practice and, increasingly in the last few years, to become a person who shares knowledge and helps others achieve. This is particularly rewarding and I hope will be the longer-term legacy that I contribute to my profession – a profession I was actually encouraged not to follow while on work experience before I applied for a place on the diploma course! I think this shows that if you have drive and determination, eventually you can achieve what you want to. The CoR has been a big help in my career, though you must participate to be noticed and receive benefit from that recognition. I think that appreciation came in 2019 when I was awarded a CoR Fellowship, an award few achieve.

In retrospect, keeping track of what is changing or what may be ‘the next big thing’ is most important, as it could form the focus of how to move your career forwards. Remember, although hard to achieve, the expectation at consultant level includes doctorallevel working, from which many doors can be opened. The potential now available via the clinical academic role, which is linked to advanced or specialist practitioner roles, may enable you to move from a purely clinical career to one with the much wider strategic perspective that is required of the consultant grade. Doctoral working could be a focus at a grade below consultant at an earlier point in your career.

This approach will give you a focus but expose you to strategic decision-making that often must be made without all the information you would like to have at hand. This is very much the gift (!) of the consultant position, but equally it can be exciting and provide opportunities that can lead to a long and satisfying career. I often remind myself that computed tomography was in its infancy while I was training (30 minutes or so to do a head scan) and compare that with what is being achieved today; the application of the four pillars of practice under the umbrella of strategic thinking means the consultant radiographer of the future will be a very exciting role.

What do you find most rewarding about radiography?

The radiographer is often one of the ‘unsung heroes’ of the health service and for many years this has certainly been the case. But it is now clear how much care delivery relies on imaging. The patient/technological interface that we learn to perform is second nature to us and mystical to others when they think they can ‘have a go.’ The skills that we learn and apply, the empathy we learn that allows us to deliver our service and the multidisciplinary role that others are now realising we possess – perhaps we have not expressed and explained all these loudly enough before, but they have suddenly been brought into the spotlight.

The professionalism that I see among my team makes me proud to call myself a radiographer. I feel that is a privilege bestowed upon me, my team and all of us in the imaging department by helping patients; people who may be at their lowest point as they fear what may be causing them to feel ill or have suffered trauma. Being that person who may be the first professional a patient can ‘open up’ to or who works with a child who leaves the department without fear of coming to us in the future – this gives me the most satisfaction, beyond all the high-level experience I enjoy as a senior member of the team. I hope that in my current role I can communicate this to all the teams across a large region, who are currently at a low ebb because of what we have faced recently in the pandemic and the subsequent need to address diagnostic and treatment backlogs.

What advice would you give others pursuing a career in radiography?

Achieving a similar role to the ones I’ve described doesn’t happen overnight! However, have a path in mind and ensure you follow an educational and experiential route that will support it. I have been very fortunate to have experienced such a wide set of opportunities but consider how various chances that come your way may eventually reward your effort. Consider leading projects, completing a course or generating the evidence that might be required if you see a service improvement that is possible and you need to prove that it may (or may not) be appropriate. Try to publish your work, if possible, as this will hone your communication skills and get you noticed.

Don’t be afraid of change – it’s the one constant. That last comment sounds like an oxymoron, but use change to your advantage and, no matter how difficult, see how it can work for you as you drive your career forward. Finally, surround yourself with a network of people you can work with or know can support you in your quest. The old idiom is true – it’s not what you know but who! They may be the people who can help you grow, make a difference and be successful.