Meet Paul Coffey, Senior Clinical Photographer, CHI at Temple Street
Paul Coffey is Senior Clinical Photographer in CHI at Temple Street. We spoke to Paul to find out about his role and the impact that funding by supporters of Children’s Health Foundation has had on his role for the benefit of patients and their families who attend the hospital.
What is Clinical Photography?
Clinical photography is a role that seems to vary by the hour but the bulk of my work is photographing patients before and during their treatment here. This usually takes place in specialised clinics that go all the way from Dermatology and ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) to Craniofacial and Cleft services. The photos are then used by the medical team to help with diagnosis, monitoring and treatment. My responsibilities also take me to the operating theatre to take photos during surgery or to A&E or ICU to photograph an emergency (like he was during our call when he had to go to photograph a patient with a tracheostomy!)
There are also many non-clinical aspects to my role including taking photographs of patients receiving end of life care, to capture lasting memories with their loved ones. Events on the wards like birthday parties, open days and team photos also crop up from time to time, breaking up the day. There is also creating training videos for staff as new medical devices and procedures are developed and introduced to the hospital.
How has funding generously made possible by supporters of Children’s Health Foundation helped you?
Working with sick children and their families and being in such a varied role means no two days are ever the same, you’ve got to be on your toes. A large part of each photographic session involves building a rapport with each and every patient and family, ensuring they are at ease and informed about the work I am doing. The most important thing for me is that a child feels comfortable and has the best experience possible. That’s where the support of Children’s Health Foundation and their generous supporters comes in.
The biggest impact for me has been the opportunity to go that little bit further to help patients and staff. Funding from the supporters of Children’s Health Foundation has allowed me to purchase advanced equipment that has resulted in a better experience for patients and their families. Even something as small as upgrading a camera to a model that makes less noise can make a world of difference to an upset patient.
It’s also allowed me to improve my sound equipment for recording procedures and training videos, benefiting the wider CHI team as I can now produce better quality training videos and recordings.
That must be incredibly beneficial for patients?
It is, I think it’s important to remember that funding from Children’s Health Foundation doesn’t just fund big ticket items like MRI machines and new wards, but it also helps support the work done every day by staff at CHI like myself. Purchasing new cameras and sound equipment to many, may seem small. However, it allows me to turn my 99% into 100% and that has a huge impact not only on my day-to-day work, but also on the experience the patients and their families have during their time in hospital.