This assessment task requires the student to demonstrate aptitude and overall practical competence in completing an echocardiogram to the level of ‘Advanced Beginner’. A student of advanced beginner competence can complete an echocardiographic scan satisfactorily as detailed in the assessment criteria and marking tool (requiring indirect supervision for overall tasks, and direct supervision for more complex tasks).

This task will be assessed by the student’s Clinical Supervisor, or a delegate sonographer, using the Practical Assessment Marking tool provided on the unit Moodle site. Students are required to provide a printed copy of this marking sheet to their Clinical Supervisor at the commencement of placement.

Students are encouraged to:

• Read the marking sheet carefully, to ensure that they understand the criteria against which their sonographic skill and relevant theoretical knowledge will be evaluated.
• Discuss the best time to complete this assessment with their Clinical Supervisor, to ensure minimal departmental disruption and sufficient time for task completion.
• Seek detailed feedback from their supervisor post assessment to enable identification of areas requiring improvement.

Should a student fail this assessment, only one re-attempt will be permitted.

Students that fail the first attempt at this assessment, should discuss their strategy for performance improvement with both their assessor and Unit Coordinator. Both attempts must be completed prior to the completion of the clinical placement block.

In the absence of an approved extension, students cannot complete this assessment at a later time, and will receive a mark of zero (or fail) for the assessment.

Students are advised to refer to the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework) document for additional university guidelines regarding assessments.

Clinical Supervisors are required to grade their student using criterion provided. Criterion should be considered in the context of the required competency level that students must demonstrate by the end of the clinical practicum block. For ECHO20004, this is 'Advanced Beginner' level.

Criteria can be grouped into several main categories. These include:

• Pre-examination tasks and instrumentation (including patient identification checks, consent and appropriate professional communication)
• Scanning technique (including two-dimensional, colour and spectral Doppler optimisation, and appropriate exam extension or modification)
• Measurement technique
• Documentation (digital image storage and labelling)
• Post-examination tasks (including worksheet completion and interpretation)
• Additional tasks (incorporating ergonomics, manual handling techniques, infection control, ethical and legal requirements)

The Clinical Supervisor is required to evaluate multiple questions under each criterion grouping on the Practical Marking Tool. The Clinical Supervisor will grade each criterion question with a score out of 4:

• A score of 1 indicates that the student needs constant direction and advice
• A score of 2 indicates the student needs frequent direction and advice
• A score of 3 indicates the student needs some direction and advice
• A score of 4 indicates independent practice, requiring direction or prompting only on complex or unusual cases

To achieve a practical competency level of ‘Advanced Beginner’, the student must attain a score of 2 or higher against ALL listed criteria.

The first attempt must be completed in the 12th week of the 16 week placement, and the second attempt (if required) must be conducted before the end of the 16 week clinical placement.

The final PASS/FAIL grade for this assessment will be at the discretion of the Unit Coordinator.

Clinical sites mention professional behaviour, particularly team work and empathy, as paramount in their decision to employ a sonographer. This assessment considers the ability of the student to communicate professionally with a diverse cultural audience of patients, staff and the general public, demonstrate professional respect for all, and function as a reliable, well organised member of the health team.

The Clinical Supervisor, or delegate, will be working in the echocardiography lab with the student, directly observing day-to-day performance. These observations and collective feedback will relate to the student's demonstration of knowledge, skills and behaviours over a span of time, not limited to a particular scan type or patient case. The observations and feedback are then used to complete the Global Assessment of Professional Attributes (GAPA) form.

There are three main sections to the GAPA form:

Section 1: Applied Knowledge

Section 2: Psychomotor skills and Standard of Work

Section 3: Professionalism

In each section there are multiple observable behaviours that the student is required to demonstrate throughout the placement. The assessor will score the performance of the student based on how frequently, and to what extent, each of the listed behaviours are demonstrated. The assessor is also encouraged to provide comments to expand on the scoring feedback.

This assessment is performed TWICE during the placement – at the midpoint (week 8) and at the completion (week 16).

The mid placement GAPA is formative. At the mid placement GAPA, the student should be given sufficient feedback to improve their behavioural performance as required. Any significant issues should be brought to the attention of the Unit Coordinator following the mid placement GAPA (or earlier if required).

If at least 50% of the criteria are not met in the mid placement GAPA, a student will be regarded as a 'Student at Risk' of failing the clinical unit overall. The student is encouraged to schedule a meeting with the Unit Coordinator to review behavioural deficits and strategies for improvement in this circumstance.

The end-of-placement GAPA assessment is summative. For any behaviour that the student scores well on at the mid-placement assessment, it is expected they will continue to meet that level of performance or surpass it for the rest of the placement.

Clinical supervisors are urged to contact the Unit Coordinator immediately for guidance if:

· Student behaviour is identified as ‘inappropriate and beyond acceptable risk’ to clinical site staff, patients and/or reputation.

· Student skill progression is deemed insufficient despite documented constructive feedback, support, and intervention.

The Unit Coordinator may request performance of a GAPA assessment at any time during a student placement. If the outcome of this GAPA is unsatisfactory, and/or the site feedback indicates that they can no longer host the student due to the risk incurred or lack of skill progression, this singular GAPA result may result in a FAIL grade and clinical placement termination immediately (prior to student completion of the allocated practicum block).

To PASS this assessment:

Students must satisfactorily demonstrate ALL criteria descriptors by the end of placement, in accordance with the competency level of an 'Advanced Beginner'.

The assessor is also encouraged to provide comments to expand on the scoring feedback.

If minimum scores in the mid-placement GAPA are not met, a student will be regarded as a 'Student at Risk' of failing the clinical unit overall.

• The Unit Coordinator will contact the student to advise of the risk of failing ECHO20004 and provide formative feedback via email. The student is required to respond to this email to show they understand the implications of this information.
• The student must reflect on their performance and the feedback provided, and develop an action plan to address any areas of performance that are not yet at the target level for this placement, and use the remaining weeks to achieve those targets.
• Review of the student’s progress will be completed a short time after the mid placement GAPA, at any time as requested by your Clinical Supervisor or Unit Coordinator.

If behavioural attributes within any section of the GAPA are deemed a 'patient safety risk', student placement may be cancelled immediately, prior to completion of the allocated clinical placement block.

Unsatisfactory scores obtained at the second GAPA attempt, will result in a FAIL grade for ECHO20004 overall.

Failure of this clinical unit will require the student to meet with the Head of Course to discuss the instigation of an individual learning contract with a view to remedying scanning skills, technical issues and/or behavioural issues. The learning contract will detail learning objectives, available learning resources, strategies and methods which will be used to assess your progress. This will likely involve scanning skills labs for tuition and assessment on a regular basis.

It is expected that students attend 100% of the time during the 16 week clinical placement to achieve the minimum 640 hours (16 X 40 hours) of direct echocardiography observance/participation or related activities approved by an ASAR registered Clinical Supervisor or appropriately qualified medical practitioner.

All hours worked must be entered into the Clinical Attendance Forms. These forms must be signed by the Clinical Supervisor, or a sonographer delegated this task by the Clinical Supervisor and submitted fortnightly. The Clinical Attendance Forms are available in the assessment block in the unit Moodle site. Please print these forms and read carefully to understand the criteria against which clinical attendance will be evaluated.

Students must not organise holidays, recreational leave or personal appointments during clinical placement periods in the absence of prior written approval.

Students are to notify the clinical placement site prior to their scheduled start time if they will be late arriving to the clinical placement site for any individual day throughout the clinical placement.

Students who are absent from clinical placement due to illness or injury must phone their Clinical Supervisor and email their Unit Coordinator PRIOR to the scheduled start time for that day. Any clinical placement hours missed due to illness or injury must be made up.

For all absences due to illness, students must provide the Clinical Supervisor and Unit Coordinator with a medical certificate or statutory declaration. Any injury that occurs while on placement must be reported immediately to the Clinical Supervisor and Unit Coordinator. Medical clearance may be required before returning to placement. For more information on this, including fitness to practice, please refer to the Clinical Placement Attendance Guidelines on the unit Moodle site.

Public holidays recognised by CQUniversity are outlined on the academic calendar. When a public holiday falls during a clinical placement block, public holiday dates can be entered as 8 hours for each day into the Attendance Logbook and hours are not required to be made up. If a designated University student vacation period coincides with the clinical placement period, students are expected to attend during this time. Students must be aware that the attendance of clinical placement takes precedence over any personal work commitments as related to absenteeism.

Outside of Clinical Placement hours

Outside of hours placement may only be used in the event of illness or injury and may not be utilised for personal leave requests.

In the event of illness and injury, students are permitted to supplement up to 25% of required unit hours from outside of clinical placement. These hours must be documented within three (3) months prior to unit enrolment for approval by the Unit Coordinator.

Supplementary hours outside of clinical placement must be verified (signed) by an ASAR accredited sonographer or appropriately qualified medical practitioner. Details of either the student’s insurance, or employment, must be entered onto the outside clinical placement attendance form.

At the end of the scheduled placement, if a student has not met the 100% attendance requirement AND does not have documented justifiable grounds for the absence, they will score a 'FAIL' for this assessment item. If there are documented justifiable grounds for absenteeism, the student will be provided additional scheduled time to make up the time they have missed. (This scheduled make-up time may not immediately follow the scheduled placement, and/or may not be at the same placement site, depending on clinical availability).

In order to achieve an overall PASS grade in this assessment task, the student must ensure:

• The minimum number of clinical placement hours have been completed.
• The documentation has been verified as accurate by the nominated ASAR registered Clinical Supervisor.
• All documentation is complete and submitted by the relevant due date.

The Clinical Case Logbook is a document designed to track clinical experience. This logbook documents all observed, partially or fully completed echocardiography cases that a student is exposed to during clinical placement. The Clinical Case Logbook will also incorporate details of case exposure obtained during any hours of attendance submitted from 'outside of clinical placement'.

Maintenance of a Clinical Case Log Book helps to ensure that:

a) an acceptable volume of clinical work is achieved

b) exposure to a reasonable case variety is achieved

c) key practical skills are developing

The Clinical Case Logbook incorporates the following data:

1. Cover page(s) which present two tables summating the weekly cumulative case volume under descriptive headings. Summative tally is based on the actual scan findings, NOT the referral indications
2. The date of each examination
3. Allocation of a unique identifier for each patient to ensure anonymity
4. Referral indications
5. Type of echocardiogram performed (i.e. Adult, Paediatric, Stress/Dobutamine, TOE)
6. Student level of scan participation (Observed, partially, or fully completed examination)
7. Case Findings

The Clinical Case Logbook entries must be signed by the Clinical Supervisor or appropriately qualified medical practitioner.

The Clinical Case Logbook serves as a record of the depth and breadth of experience you attained during the placement. It demonstrates the degree of progression of your skill development within and across examination types. It is recommended that students should analyse this record at regular intervals to assist in the formulation of learning goals that will support achievement of the unit outcomes.

During this clinical placement it is anticipated that students will partially or fully complete a minimum of 320 echocardiograms (or 4 scans per day). Students are advised to ensure they are gaining experience under each of the different categories.

The Clinical Case Logbook cover page must be signed by the Clinical Supervisor or echocardiographer delegated by the Clinical Supervisor.

In order to achieve an overall grade of PASS in this assessment task, students must:

• Accurately record all studies in the Clinical Case Logbook.
• Ensure documentation is complete.
• Submit the requested documentation via Moodle by the published due dates.

Students must submit two case studies during this clinical placement.

A case study must be submitted from each of the below categories:

1. Abnormal ventricular function (comprehensive systolic and/or diastolic evaluation)
2. Valve regurgitation (at least moderate in severity)

There are two components to this assessment task:

• Component 1: Written case report
• Component 2: Echocardiographic study (image presentation and submission)

BOTH components must be passed to pass the case study overall.

The purpose of the case study is to:

• Provide the Unit Coordinator with an opportunity to evaluate student technical performance
• Facilitate the continuing development of student clinical reasoning to ensure exposure to a variety of cases
• Encourage reflection and self improvement of technical and research skills and assessment strategies

The case study must include the following:

• Patient history and clinical indications
• Discussion of assessment strategy
• Case interpretation and supporting rationale
• Appropriate referencing
• Academic language and scientific terminology
• Appropriate scanning and measuring technique
• Accurate and relevant documentation

The anonymised provisional or final echocardiographic report must be included as an appendix to the case study.

The majority of the images of the case study must be completed by the submitting student and any images obtained by the Clinical Supervisor must be clearly identified.

Image submission:

The written case report must be accompanied by the submission of de-identified digital images in DICOM format. The student will be required to present the images to the Unit Coordinator via a scheduled zoom meeting 2 weeks prior to the case study due date. The deidentified DICOM images must also be uploaded to Google drive, and a link shared with the Unit Coordinator.

All clinical information must be de-identified to protect patient privacy and confidentiality. Maintenance of patient confidentiality must be adhered throughout both practical and written components of the case study.

If all attempts to de-identify the echocardiography images have failed, the student must request permission from the patient to provide their images to CQUniversity for educational purposes. The patient must provide written consent by completing the form provided on the unit Moodle site. This patient consent from must be submitted with the case study.

Word count:

Strictly 1500 - 2000 words. Word count does not include headings or references, but does include diagram captions and labelling. Excess words will not be marked.

Referencing:

Vancouver. Minimum 8 peer reviewed journal articles/relevant text books must be cited. Literature titles must be current (<5 years of age), except seminal works. Support material for the Vancouver Referencing System is available on the Moodle site.

Note: This assessment is to be undertaken as an individual. Colluding with other students on non-group work tasks is considered academic misconduct, and may lead to action being taken the Deputy Dean of Learning and Teaching HMAS.

Students are advised to refer to the 'Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)' document for additional university guidelines regarding assessments.

Students are developing aptitude and overall practical competencies consistent with that of an 'Advanced Beginner' in ECHO20004.

To PASS this assessment:

Students must successfully demonstrate ALL criteria descriptors as specified on the marking rubric.

BOTH components must be passed to pass the case study overall.

A detailed marking rubric is available on the unit Moodle site.

Case studies submitted without accompanying DICOM images will not be marked.

Case studies that do not achieve a pass grade will be returned to the student with appropriate feedback. Students are permitted one re-submission opportunity only (imaging component and/or written component as required). Any re-submission attempt is required within two (2) weeks of receiving feedback.

This assessment task will require students to complete two (2) separate online quizzes. The quizzes will assess understanding and application of the following quality assurance and occupational safety and health content:

• Identifying workplace hazards
• Sonographer safety and injury prevention
• Infection control
• Communication in health care
• Diagnostic imaging accreditation
• Clinical governance
• Quality improvement
• Risk management
• Safety culture

.

Questions may be drawn from lectures or additional resources provided.

The quizzes can be accessed through the assessment tab on Moodle at the assigned time.

• Each quiz will be marked out of 30 marks.
• Students have 40 minutes to complete each quiz.
• Open book conditions.
• Once started, the quizzes cannot be paused or restarted.

The duration of each quiz is tailored to promote recall of fact, rather than research of answers unknown. It is recommended that students have a calculator available when sitting the online quizzes.

Please note:

It is the student's individual responsibility to commence each online quiz allowing adequate time for completion.

The quizzes will automatically close and submit completed student answers once the allocated time has elapsed.

Questions will be drawn from a resource bank, to allow tests to be different for each student.

Students are reminded that IT support from the university Information and Technology Division (TASAC) is only available during AEST business hours.

This assessment is to be undertaken as an individual. Colluding with other students on non-group work tasks is considered academic misconduct, and may lead to action being taken the Deputy Dean of Learning and Teaching HMAS.

Students are advised to refer to the 'Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)' document for additional university guidelines regarding assessments.

Students will be required to answer a variety of online questions.

Question responses will be assessed according to the:

• Use of appropriate quality assurance terminology and concepts.
• Student’s ability to interpret clinical scenarios and appropriately apply quality assurance knowledge.
• Capability to demonstrate understanding of occupational safety and health content.
• Student's ability to succinctly respond with accurate and clinically relevant answers.

The number of marks allocated for each question will be indicated within the quiz. Question marks are allocated based on the accuracy, depth and breath of required responses.

Please note that the quizzes must be completed before the due date listed. The specific dates that the quizzes open and close are outlined in the due description. In the absence of an approved extension, there will be no opportunity to complete the task after this date.

Students will have one opportunity to resit the online quiz if they do not achieve an overall pass grade for this assessment.