KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS OF RADIOGRAPHY PROFESSION AMONG SENIOR SCIENCE SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN BAUCHI METROPOLIS, NORTH EASTERN NIGERIA

Background: knowledge and awareness of radiography profession among senior science secondary schools students in Bauchi metropolis North-eastern Nigeria Aim: The aim of the study is to assess the level of knowledge and awareness of radiography profession among senior science secondary school students in Bauchi metropolis Materials and Methods: The study was carried out in four secondary schools in Bauchi. A 13 item self structured questionnaire was used to collect the data, the questionnaire contained four parts and 13 questions in all. 191 Students voluntarily consented and filled the questionnaire. 50 students of senior science secondary two and three were recruited from each school. The questions were to explore among other students knowledge about radiography, awareness, parental influence and career guidance generally. Descriptive statistics were generated from the collected data using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 16.0. Results: A total of 191 respondent filled and returned their questionnaire with a response rate of 83.1%. More than half of the respondents representing 56.5% were male and 43.5%were female and 52.9% of the respondents were between 17-18 years. Majority 62.8% of the students were not familiar with radiography. A total of 70.7% of the students had no knowledge about radiography and 84.8% knew about x-rays. A total of 95.3% and 59.7% agreed that career education and parental guidance is important to their future respectively. Conclusion: The study showed that Awareness about Radiography among senior science secondary schools students in Bauchi metropolis was not encouraging with many of the students possessing little knowledge about Radiography even though they might have heard about it. Students agreed that career education is important to their future and Parents/guardians also influence career choice for their children.