Born in the UK and raised in South Africa, Helen Oehler completed her National Diploma in Diagnostic Radiography in 1990 at the Johannesburg General Hospital School Of Radiography, which was affiliated to the Witwatersrand Technikon.
She then went on to do 2 years of community service at the Boksburg Benoni Hospital.
Because of the vast amount of trauma patients treated at this Hospital, Helen elected to continue working there for a further two and a half years to gain experience performing trauma radiography with in the bounds of the equipment limitations.
After a failed attempt to work in the UK in 1994 - her CPSM registration was not completed in time - Helen decided to move from Johannesburg to Durban.
Helen started work for a Private practice at the beginning of 1995, Bortz, Lake and Partners.
To begin, Helen spent three months working in one of their smaller practices, Durdoc X-ray department. This helped her phase in to private radiography, which is vastly different from government radiography. After three months, she was transferred to one of the larger practices, Westville X-ray department.
Here she gained valuable experience, doing CT Scanning in addition to her normal duties as a Diagnostic Radiographer.
Whilst at Westville X-ray, Helen was also given the opportunity to learn some of the management basics of running an X-ray department.
A new private hospital was built in the Umhlanga area in 1997. Helen applied for the position of running the new X-ray department. She was successfully employed by Umhlanga Radiology, but still had to complete a trial period of one year before obtaining the title of Head Radiographer.
Helen then spent a rewarding four years working at Umhlanga Radiology before reaching the conclusion that it was time to move on.
Being lucky enough to have a British passport and having already registered with the CPSM/HPC, Helen decided to do Locum Radiography in the UK, through Sonographers Medical Employment Agency.
During her first locum she realized how much she enjoyed the challenge and experience of working in a foreign country and hospital system. Helen also discovered there was a shortage of Qualified Radiographers in the UK.
She approached Sonographers Medical Employment Agency with the offer to assist them to recruit South African Radiographers, since there are no agencies dedicated exclusively to the recruitment of Radiographers in South Africa. Her own firsthand experience would give Radiographers some insight into living and working in the UK.
An agreement was reached and Helen established Sonographers Medical South Africa in August 2002.
Helen hopes eventually to offer Radiographers, both South African and British, the opportunity to earn CPD points by doing Locum Radiography in a foreign country. Another ambition of Helen's is to create a system of Radiographer swaps between UK and SA Hospitals, resulting in increased work experience without draining the existing work force.
In November 2002, Helen was published in The South African Radiographer with an article entitled "How to go about working as a Radiographer/Sonographer in the UK", a paper aimed at simplifying the process of obtaining employment in the UK for all her South African colleagues. To read a transcript of the article - Helen's Article
