CONTEXT The profession of Radiography provides a critical frontline healthcare service. Clinical competence and the use of technology in the management of patient pathways are core to Radiography Practice education. The COVID-19 crisis has impacted on the stability of clinical training schedules for student radiographers and reinforced the need for learning options and digital transformation within Radiography curricula. Furthermore, Radiography Institutions across Europe and internationally are at varying stages of digital readiness and resourcing to optimise distance learning and this project will offer realistic support options to enhance Radiography training and develop digital learning skills sets in staff and students. Successes over the 26 year history of the Erasmus Radiography Group (ERG) have been collaborative efforts to harmonise curricula, and also to offer professional support across national boundaries as staff within the profession develop their role. The FORCE project will leverage this international experience in order to deliver a resource that encompasses a pan-European dimension of radiographic practice that would not be possible within a project developed on a local basis. The FORCE project aligns to the focus of building and implementing online, blended and distance learning and the development of educators to enable them to deliver high quality inclusive digital education. The FORCE PROJECT involves a consortium of 8 academic partners and promotes networking, the sharing of expertise and sharing of resources. Academic staff, digital technology providers and importantly student radiographers will participate in the project. AIM The overall aim of the FORCE project is to develop a virtual web-based learning resource where Radiography undergraduates across Europe can engage in interactive, problem based development of radiographic knowledge, ability and professional awareness. SELECTED OBJECTIVES 1. Establishment of a web based virtual learning environment accessible initially across partner organisations, and subsequently deliverable as an open resource. 2. Develop comprehensive patient stories to capture the personal and medical history of each. 3. Delivery of a variety of interactive tools through which students can negotiate the learning material in the VLE. In essence the VLE will present students with a simulation of an imaging and therapy "department", with patients to be examined and problems to be solved. 4. Harvest evaluation from both students and staff on the functionality, ease of operation, usefulness, level of competence development and future potential of the resource. EXPECTED IMPACTS 1. Harmonisation and enhanced educational practices employed for Radiography education throughout Europe. The standards of education will be enhanced from the production of high-quality learning content and innovative pedagogical approaches. The development of “Patient Story Base” will be a novel validated teaching resource which will support the teaching of a variety of core topics, in an interactive manner, to a large audience. New graduates will be expected to have a greater awareness of patient care pathways and are expected to have enhanced appreciation of clinical decision making upon graduation that they will bring to their daily work practice. The enhanced patient care learning resources will also contain a purposely increased content dealing with equality, inclusion and diversity issues. Provision of this content is expected to improve inclusivity awareness in new graduates so it is embedded into the professional culture which will in turn enhance patient care outcomes. The breadth of this curriculum enhancement will extend across diagnostic and radiotherapy specialities and routine to critical care examinations, across healthcare systems. The availability of the open access resources produced by FORCE will support Radiography educational institutions across Europe of varied economic status. 2. An increased awareness of the potential for clinical simulation to be incorporated within the Radiography education. As digital simulation opportunities develop and as they grow in complexity and possible cost it is important the profession understands the impact of the simulation and is leading how simulation is best used in Radiography education. The experience and outputs reported by FORCE will form an evidence base for the profession as digitalexperiences grow. Additionally, the knowledge gained through the implementation of increased levels of simulation will impact on professional discourse when reviewing traditional opinion. Historically there has been a reluctance within the profession and by national professional regulators in healthcare to formally recognise clinical simulation and the outcomes of this project will impact positively on the evidence base needed to debate this topic.
The project set out to develop web-based learning resources where Radiography undergraduates can add to their clinical placement experience by engaging with interactive simulations of clinical examinations in Radiography, Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy. A virtual learning environment (VLE) was established. The VLE presents a close simulation of workflow in an imaging and therapy "department", with different work areas, patients to be examined and problems to be solved. The VLE has been populated with video simulations in Diagnostic Radiography, Image Interpretation, Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy. The video simulations of clinical cases are overlaid with interactive learning content. The VLE is open-access to any user following initial access using Google account credentials. Use of Google password access is necessary for operation of the concierge system to use the 2D virtual reality simulation software for the diagnostic case simulations. The VLE is aimed at student Radiographers and Radiography Educators, although the potential value to practising Radiographers as a Continuing Professional Development Tool is acknowledged.
The project was initiated in response to the COVID pandemic and its impact on clinical placement learning for student Radiographers. It is a pre-requisite of Radiographer education across Europe that students have clinical placement learning. As well as being essential for competence development, national regulatory bodies have mandatory clinical training requirements. During the pandemic, a near crisis in sustaining clinical placements reinforced the need for learning options and digital transformation within Radiography curricula. Irrespective the pandemic, solutions are required to augment the scale and quality of clinical learning. However, Radiography institutions internationally are at varying stages of readiness to develop online clinical education. Learning through engagement with clinical simulations is accepted as effective in supporting clinical education. The consortium shared expertise and resources to develop a virtual learning environment (VLE) containing examination simulations for Radiography, Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy. In this VLE, Radiography learners can engage in interactive, problem based development of knowledge, ability and professional awareness to supplement their clinical placement education.