The specifics of the work of nurse at the department of nuclear medicine

Nuclear medicine is a medical discipline, that deals with investigational and treatment methods, used by open radioactive emitters - known as radiopharmaceuticals. At present, the methods of nuclear medicine are very used and constantly developing. This bachelor's thesis is divided into a theoretical and an empirical part. The theoretical part of the work contains the requirements for knowledge of nurses working at the nuclear medicine ward. This section discusses particularly the ionizing radiation, its biological effects, methods of nuclear medicine and, of course, radiopharmaceuticals. In this part are mentioned also the educational opportunities for nurses, which are focused mainly on postgraduate education. An important part of the nurse's work is the protection against the ionizing radiation, in this work we consider the protection of nurses and patients. In the last segment are described the most common procedures of examination and some techniques of treatment in nuclear medicine. The empirical piece of work has been processed through a qualitative approach by the help of a semi-structured interview. The interviews were conducted with nurses working at the department of nuclear medicine. The informations obtained from the nurses were analyzed and subsequently categorized. In the context of the exploratory research, was set the goal - to map the specifics of the nurse's work at the department of nuclear medicine. The results of the research survey showed, what are the specifics of the nurse's work at the nuclear medicine's department. Among the specifics of the nurse's work belongs especially theoretical knowledge, the machine operating, the preparation for actual examination and its execution, providing informations and the associated protection from ionizing radiation. The results also pointed to the lack of opportunities nurses have for education in the area of nuclear medicine and told of their satisfaction from working at this department.