Melissa Anshaw

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Clinical Nurse Specialist – Medical Imaging 

St George Hospital

“Working in Medical Imaging can mean completing a number of different procedures; X-ray, CT, MRI, Fluroscopy and the Emergency Department has radiology nurses during the day. It’s a really unique sort of place. I’m working with a multi-disciplinary team of registrars, consultants, radiographers, sonographers, orderlies, technical assistants and front desk staff. So there’s a lot of coordinating and problem solving with different people.

I see a lot of anxious people. Sometimes they’re a bit angry because they don’t want to be here, or they’ve been sent here for something that they don’t want done. It’s not that they’re particularly angry with me, but they’re projecting that, so I just try to make them feel comfortable by trying to find a common connection.

Patients always worry about tests and whether they’re going to be diagnosed with something. The most challenging thing is I can’t provide test results straight away. I have to tell them it will be a three or five day wait for their results, or however long it is until they see their specialist.”