EVALUATION OF RADIATION PROTECTION MEASURES FOR PREGNANT PATIENTS UNDERGOING X-RAYS AT UNIVERSITY OF BENIN TEACHING HOSPITAL

The pregnancies present special safety concerns owing to the high levels of radiosensitivity of the embryo-fetus. This was an evaluation of radiation protection protocols used with pregnant patients when they undergo X-ray services at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH). A cross-sectional (descriptive) survey of radiographers (N = 32) was done, where the survey utilizing a structured, self-administered questionnaire to respondents focused on the shielding practice, dose-reduction methods, and compliance aspects. Simple inferential test and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. The majority of the respondents were male (78.1%), the most frequent age group was 26-30 years (35.9%); 53.1% of them were interns, and 87.5% had already worked with pregnant patients. Practice was high in terms of overall shielding (grand mean = 3.88/5) with routine lead shielding (mean = 4.1) and proper etching of the fetal-region shielding (mean = 4.0) being reported most frequently. There was also strong dose-reduction behavior (grand mean = 3.98), with avoiding repeat exposures (mean = 4.4), reducing exposure factors (mean = 4.2) and tight collimation (mean = 4.1) being the leaders. The best compliance was observed with confidence in fetal-risk knowledge (mean = 4.0) and prior-training (mean = 3.9) with high workload (mean = 3.6) and moderate availability/use of pregnancy specific protocols (mean = 3.5) being considered gaps. All in all, the good shielding practice was demonstrated by 78.1 percent of radiographers. A chi-square test revealed no statistically significant difference between the practice categories of shielding (kh2= 0.08, df= 1, p= 0.77). To sum up, radiographers in the teaching hospital of the university of Benin demonstrate good commitments to practices in line with the ALARA to the care of pregnant patients, especially in shielding and collimation as well as reducing repeats. Prolonged CPD, protocols specific to pregnancy, enhanced workflow facilitation, and an unproblematic access to maternity-fit shielding are suggested in order to seal the remaining gaps. Data collection had to be pre-empted with ethical approval and institutional permissions.