**6.2. Demographic profile of respondent: gender, professional qualification and working area**

The demographic profile in table 2 on page 13 shows that the ratio of male to female respond‐ ents was 3:1 (75% - 25%). This observation may be associated to the general perception individ‐ uals have of radiation. As espoused by Maiorova et al (2008) most females prefer to work in other professions than to be in the radiography profession which is consistent with the Ghana‐ ian situation where high numbers of females are found in other professions, particularly, nurs‐ ing. As a result of the misconception people have about radiation in Ghana, some nurses even refuse to stay in the duty room at the radiography department to assist patients that they have accompanied. However, in other parts of the world, especially Australia, the radiography pro‐ fession is dominated by the female population (Merchant *et al.,* 2011).

Table 2 on page 13 also shows that equal numbers of the respondents were either diploma or degree holders (42.9% each) with the certificate holders being the least (14.3%). This is due to the fact that the certificate programme had been phased out long time ago and re‐ cently the diploma programme has also been stopped. The only radiography educational programme currently being offered in Ghana is the bachelor's programme. It was however observed that there was no respondent with a postgraduate degree hence the highest educa‐ tional qualification in the study setting was first degree holders. As a result the absence of post-graduate education in the country, only few radiographers have managed to acquire post graduation abroad and they are mostly in the academia.

Figure 1 on page 13 shows that a good number of the respondents (47%) were into general radiography. The increased requests for general radiography examinations and the in‐ creased number of duty rooms may be responsible for this trend. Facilities for specialised imaging modalities are very limited and as has been stated earlier, there is only one MRI, a CT-scan and one mammogram in the department, hence the majority of the respondents in general radiography.
