Soundeffects news | Interview with Alison White, AFASA

Alison White, AFASA | PROFESSIONAL TOPICS & CARDIAC | AUS

Senior Lecturer and Program Director | Griffith University

Alison White is a Senior Lecturer and Program Director at Griffith University, with over 25 years of clinical experience as an accredited medical sonographer (cardiac). She has been actively involved in the education of cardiac scientists since 2010 through ASUM and the ASA and has led the Graduate Diploma of Clinical Physiology at Griffith University since 2012. Her contributions to education have been widely recognised, including a National Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning in 2017 and a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2018.

At ASA2025, Alison will explore key professional development topics, including communication strategies, reflective practice, and emotional resilience in sonography. In this interview, she discusses the challenges of communication in high pressure clinical settings, strategies for maintaining professional wellbeing, and the importance of strengths-based approaches to workplace interactions. She also shares her thoughts on the ASA2025 theme, ‘Educate, Elevate, Celebrate,’ and what attendees can expect from her upcoming presentations.

Communication is an essential skill in sonography, yet it often presents challenges in a high pressure clinical setting. From your experience, what are the most significant communication barriers sonographers face today, and how can they be addressed?

Sonographers represent a unique profession as they do not have the opportunity to create a therapeutic relationship in the way that other health professionals, such as doctors or nurses do, yet due to the complexity of the majority of the scanning protocols, sonographers are required to interact with patients for an extended period and often at vulnerable points in a patient’s healthcare journey. This uniqueness of extended periods of close contact with patients can present a challenge for sonographers: sonographers need to gain a patient’s trust in a short period while remaining professional and genuine in their communication style. Sonographers can communicate effectively with their patients by remaining mindful in the moment with their patients, recognising and acknowledging the specific needs and concerns of their patients and extending professional empathy. These factors support trust building with the patient as well as the patient feeling that they have been acknowledged and cared for by the sonographer.

In addition, sonographers are required to interact closely with a range of healthcare professionals, including referring and reporting physicians, nurses, department colleagues, and administration staff, who at times, due to the pressure of their own roles, may not respond in a conciliatory, respectful or understanding manner. Navigating the communication challenges in the healthcare team requires a high level of self-awareness from the sonographer of their communication style (and how they may need to upskill and consider alternative communication styles) combined with high levels of confliction resolution skills. Sonographers can communicate effectively with colleagues by remembering to enact mutual support through using open communication, which is non-judgmental, remaining open to receiving and acting upon feedback and being willing to view situations from the perspective of others. These factors aid to decrease aggression and improve collaboration in healthcare teams.

Emotional resilience is critical in a profession where sonographers often navigate high stress situations and emotional patient interactions. How can reflective practice help build resilience, and what steps can sonographers take to incorporate it into their daily routine?

Reflective practice incorporates the process of mindful agency, which is when a person is aware of their thoughts, feelings, values and actions and how these influence their behaviours and responses to situations. Reflective practice allows sonographers to be reflexive, to adapt to rapidly changing situations in a professional and respectful manner but also in a manner that is self-protective and positive for personal wellbeing. For reflection to be meaningful, it must be purposeful; automatic behaviours, underlying beliefs and assumptions should be evaluated and questioned for their usefulness/detriment in the workplace setting, and a key part of the reflective process involves considering how similar situations in the future can be approached more productively and beneficially.

Reflective practice can be incorporated into the daily routine of the sonographer. Self-care techniques such as taking the time in between patients to refocus mentally through stretching, counting backwards while handwashing to ‘reset’ after an emotionally triggering patient interaction, keeping a personal notebook to jot down points of frustration and points of positivity which can be reviewed, evaluated and analysed at an appropriate time (end of day) are all strategies which can assist sonographers to focus their attention and build self-awareness. By being more self-aware and routinely practising self-care techniques, sonographers can build their capacity to manage emotionally triggering situations and adapt more positively and productively. All of which builds long-time resilience (remembering that resilience is a process of adapting in a productive way to challenging situations to enact behavioural flexibility to external demands).

Which of your upcoming presentations at ASA2025 are you most excited about?

I have five presentations that I am honoured to present this year at ASA2025. Of these presentations, I am most excited about my masterclass presentation on ‘Finding key strengths in yourself and others to promote effective communication’. This is the first time that the ASA has incorporated a masterclass in their professional topics stream, and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to present a masterclass on strengths-based communication skills. Workplace relationships can break down often because of a lack of understanding between individuals. Making the purposeful step of identifying your own key strengths and how they drive your behaviours (in both positive and negative ways) can allow you to, in turn, recognise and capitalise on the strengths of others. A strength-based approach to communication in the workplace can support growth and collaboration through appreciative inquiry, active listening and shifting the focus to what’s proactive and achievable to have a forward-looking (instead of a backward disciplinary) focus.

The theme for ASA2025 is ‘Educate, Elevate, Celebrate’. How does this align with your approach to professional development in sonography?

My approach to professional development as a sonographer is to seek strategies and opportunities to challenge myself to extend and expand my knowledge in order to review, refresh and renew my professional capabilities. The theme for ASA2025 of ‘Educate, Elevate, Celebrate’ aligns with my approach to continuing professional development; by expanding my knowledge through participating in lectures and poster presentations, elevating my approach to workplace practices through participating in hands-on learning and challenging my existing knowledge, and celebrating the strengths and nuances of the sonography profession through maintaining existing and creating new collegial relationships in the networking and social events. As sonographers, we are privileged as a group of professionals to have access to inspirational discussions, globally recognised speakers and access to the latest in technology from exhibitors all in one place at ASA2025 Melbourne. I can’t wait!

Explore Alison White’s ASA2025 Program

SESSION | PRESENTATION

FRI 12:30 – 2:20pm | Building emotional resiliance to foster wellbeing by utilising reflective practice in the sonography workplace

FRI 4:00 – 4:50pm | Considerations of communication challenges facing sonographers in Australia beyond 2024

SAT 11:00am – 12:30pm | Intergenerational communication: the importance of bridging the gap into the clinical workplace

SAT 8:45 – 10:05am | Being mindful in the moment: Keeping the focus on the patient

SUN 9:00 – 10:30am | Masterclass: Finding key strengths in yourself and others to promote effective communication