CQUniversity Unit Profile.

This unit is part of a professionally accredited course within which students are expected to complete 50 weeks of clinical experience. For this unit you must attend 5 weeks of full-time clinical placement or the equivalent number of days through an approved alternative scheduling arrangement. The placement location(s) and timing have been arranged by the university in order to provide sufficient learning and assessment opportunities for you to meet the unit learning outcomes.

Your rostering, including daily start and end times, is determined by the clinical supervisor of the allocated placement site. The roster depends on the scheduling of imaging procedures that are relevant to your educational requirements, the typical hours of operation of the clinical facility and availability of sufficient supervision. You should not expect the roster to be modified to suit your personal life. There are no allocated personal leave days during this placement. You are not permitted to work extra shifts back to back in order to reduce the duration of clinical placement. You are required to achieve 100% attendance. This is defined as attending all hours relative to the quantity of time that you have been rostered by your clinical supervisor to achieve 5 weeks of full-time placement, minus any absence that is approved by both your clinical supervisor and unit coordinator. You are not required to attend on any public holidays that fall within your rostered weeks, nor are you required to make up those days.

If you need to be absent for a part or full day of placement, you must inform both your clinical supervisor and unit coordinator as soon as possible, preferably in advance of the missed time. If you have justifiable grounds for having missed time, you may apply for special consideration of the missed time to the unit coordinator by providing supporting documentation. This may impact the quantity of time you are required to make up. All unapproved absences must be made up. Any time to be made up is to be scheduled at the convenience of the clinical site. This may result in extension of the work day or work week. Note that not all facilities have extended hours of operation, so opportunities to make up time are site-dependent. If you attend outside of your normally rostered hours (e.g. late day, evening or weekend), you must still be under direct supervision and working within your scope of practice, and the caseload anticipated by your supervisor must be such that the time would provide useful learning experience. You will document your attendance relative to your rostered time each week in the weekly logbook file. The record must be accurate and complete. You must include any episodes of absence, lateness or early departure in the comments section. Your attendance record for each week of rostered time must be uploaded within the logbook file within 3 days of the last rostered shift of the week.

To obtain a score of ‘Pass’ for this assessment, you must:
Complete 100% attendance as defined above and have documented all attendance accurately and completely in your weekly log, and have submitted each week's completed log file within three days of completing your weekly shift.

At the end of the scheduled 5 weeks of placement, if you have not met the 100% attendance requirement AND you have documented justifiable grounds for your absenteeism, you will be provided additional scheduled time to make up the time you have missed. This scheduled make-up time may not be immediately following the scheduled 5 week placement, and/or may not be at the same placement site, depending on clinical availability. At the end of the scheduled 5 weeks of placement, if you have not met the 100% attendance requirement AND you do not have documented justifiable grounds for the absence, you will score 'Fail' for this assessment item.

The clinical logbook serves as a record of your depth and breadth of experience attained during the placement. It demonstrates the degree of progression of your skill development within and across procedure types. You should use this record to inform your reflection on learning and formulating weekly learning goals that will support achievement of the unit outcomes. You must record in the electronic log tool (the Excel spreadsheet file provided in the unit Moodle site) a weekly listing of every imaging procedure in which you participate. Your level of involvement in each procedure is to be categorised as observed, assisted or performed, using the following definitions:

For general radiographic procedures, you must also categorise the patient by type:

You must record any performance assessments that you have attempted, whether passed or failed. Performance assessment documentation includes the patient type (basic vs complex).

You must also log other clinical learning activities. This includes facility induction and orientation, any meetings, image critique sessions or other feedback/learning activities with your clinical supervisor or other clinical educator.

The weekly log is a multi-sheet Excel workbook with built-in calculations to track your progress during the unit. You must follow the log instructions provided on the unit Moodle site and within the log in order to ensure that tracking calculations are correct. This same master file must be updated weekly, so that each week’s submission contains a running tally of all week’s entries.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you have regular access to the technology needed to complete the spreadsheet each week. If you have a technical issue or personal circumstances that prevent you from being able to complete and upload your file by the weekly deadline, you MUST inform the unit coordinator of the situation, as this will require obtaining approval for an assessment extension. In the absence of an approved assessment extension, your failure to meet the weekly upload deadline will result in a Fail grade for this assessment item.

The logbook is graded on a 'Pass/Fail' basis. The logbook is assessed on accuracy and completeness of information entered and on timeliness of submissions. If any week's upload have noticeable gaps, errors or omissions, you will be given one week to correct and resubmit that week's log.

To obtain a score of "Pass" for this assessment you must:

• ensure that your log book is complete and accurate in regards to your attendance, your participation in imaging examinations, assessments you have attempted, as well as supervisor meetings and/or other educational activities, AND
• submit your completed log book within 3 days of completing the last rostered shift of the week.

Clinical placement occurs in the professional workplace. As a clinical student, you are provided access to that workplace on the condition that you demonstrate behaviours and attributes of a healthcare professional and present a positive image to the clinical facility's staff and clients. As a student in a regulated healthcare profession in Australia, you are also required to be working toward consistent compliance with the Code of Conduct for regulated health professionals.

Your clinical supervisor will be working in the imaging areas with you, directly observing your day-to-day performance, and/or obtaining feedback from supervising radiographers who are doing so. These observations and collected feedback relate to your demonstrated knowledge, skills and behaviours over a span of time, not limited to a particular procedure type or patient case. The observations and feedback are then used to complete the Global Assessment of Professional Attributes (GAPA) form provided.

There are three main sections to the GAPA form:

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

This assessment occurs twice during the placement. The first occurs during week 3 and the second occurs at the end of Week 5. The first GAPA assessment is formative, meaning its function is to provide you and your unit coordinator with formal documented feedback on your performance, but there are no minimum required scores related to your final grade. You are expected to use that feedback to reflect on your performance, 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. For any behaviour that you score well on for this initial GAPA assessment, it is expected that you will continue to meet that level of performance or surpass it for the rest of the placement.

The final GAPA assessment occurs toward the end of Week 5, the final week of the placement. The end-of-placement assessment is summative, in that its primary use is to evaluate and document your performance relative to the stated performance targets, the minimum required scores listed in the Assessment Criteria section below. Your final overall grade in this assessment depends on where you stand relative to those performance targets. You should use this end-of-placement assessment as formative as well, to help inform your plans for improvement that you can implement in future placements.

For both Week 3 and Week 5 GAPAs you must use the assessment tool to self-assess your behaviours and compare your self-assessment with the assessment given by your supervisor.

Your clinical supervisor (or designated assessor) will meet with you after completing each assessment to discuss it with you. This is your opportunity to get clarification on any score or comment on the assessment. Once you have had that discussion, you both need to sign and date the assessment. You need to ensure that each completed assessment form has all required documentation, including the name, dated signature and registration number of your assessor as well as your dated signature. Your supervisor will provide you with a copy of the completed assessment form. You must then scan the supervisor-completed and self-completed GAPA forms and upload the file into the unit Moodle site using the link provided.

You are also required to log these assessment meetings in Section 3 of your relevant weekly logs, including the meeting date and a brief summary of the discussion plus the overall score of each assessment.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you remind your clinical supervisor at least a week prior to the assessment that it needs to be done, and book a meeting with him/her toward the end of the week that the assessment is due. This gives your supervisor the opportunity to collect feedback and to designate an alternate assessor if he/she will not be available.

If there are extenuating circumstances at the clinical facility that prevent you from being assessed during the required weeks, you must contact the unit coordinator in a timely manner. This will require obtaining approval for an assessment extension. It is also your responsibility to ensure regular access to the technology needed to upload your assessment files by the submission due dates. In the absence of an approved assessment extension, if you have not met all of the requirements listed in the Assessment Criteria section by the stated due dates, you will fail this assessment, and because this is a pass/fail unit that means you will receive a Fail grade for the unit.

In order to achieve a score of ‘Requirements met’ for this assessment, you must:

• Upload both the self-assessed and supervisor-assessed GAPAs completed at the end of week 3 within 3 days of finishing that weekly shift. The week 3 GAPA is formative and there is no minimum level of attainment required.
• Upload both the self-assessed and supervisor-assessed GAPAs completed at the end of week 5 within 3 days of finishing that weekly shift. The week 5 GAPA is summative and you must meet the required standards in each of the three identified areas.

Required standards:

1: Initiative & Communication - Score no less than "3" in all areas. A maximum of 1 "NA" score is acceptable.

2: Responsibility & Demeanour - Score no less than "3", with a maximum of 5 scores of "3". The remainder must achieve a score of "4" or above. A maximum of 1 "NA" score is acceptable.

3: Overall Technical Knowledge & Skill - Score no less than "2" for attributes pertaining to articulation. For use of equipment the minimum score is "3", with no "NA" scores.

This task is designed to assess your reflections on your development as an imaging professional during this clinical placement and to assess your goal-setting for your own development.

In order to complete this task you must keep a note of your technical skills using the technical reflective flow-chart or a note of your skills in communication using the interaction reflective flow chart.

Task

By Week 3, decide whether you will assess your technical skills or interaction skills using the reflection flow-charts available on the unit Moodle site. Use the relevant flow-chart to assess your skills in your chosen area. Having assessed your skills, by the end of Week 3 you must reflect on one aspect of your chosen skill set.

You must set  a “SMART” goal based on your reflection – that is the goal must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-specific. Ensure that any goal set is able to be completed within the final two weeks of your clinical unit.

Complete one (1) SMART goal using the template provided on the unit Moodle site.

At the end of your clinical unit, reflect on your SMART goal and describe if you reached your goal, what you did to achieve this or why you did not and what you could and should have done to ensure success. You will also describe how these goals have assisted in your continuing development as an imaging professional. The reflection on the success of your goal must be written at the end of the goal sheet. Aim for approximately 500 words for your reflection on the success of your goal and how it has assisted in your development as an imaging professional.

As a reflective report, it is acceptable to use the first person for this assessment piece, however, all external sources must be correctly referenced.

This assessment is assessed upon:

A marking rubric will be posted on the unit Moodle site. You are required to achieve a 'Requirements met' score in all areas of the marking rubric.

In the event that the first submission does not meet minimum requirements as per the marking rubric, you will be provided detailed feedback and guidance by the unit coordinator. You will then have an opportunity to revise and resubmit the report within two weeks of receiving feedback.

During the 5 weeks of clinical experience, you are expected to develop proficiency in general radiographic imaging to the level of an advanced beginner.

Once you have performed a given examination type multiple times and are able to carry it out with a moderate amount of guidance and correction from the supervising radiographer, you are to request an assessment in that examination type. Performance assessments may be conducted by your clinical supervisor or a radiographer designated as an assessor by your supervisor. The assessor will observe you as you perform one imaging examination. Your assessor will use the assessment tool provided on the unit Moodle site to document the level of independence, completeness and correctness you have demonstrated in each of the required tasks. Your assessor may also provide comments on what was done well and what needs improvement.

You must ensure that each completed assessment form has all required information, including the name, dated signature and registration number of your assessor, as well as your dated signature. This is the case whether you have passed or failed the assessment. If a radiographer other than your clinical supervisor completed the assessment, it is your responsibility to ensure that that your supervisor knows the outcome of each attempted assessment and that he/she is provided with the original of the completed assessment form. Your supervisor will provide you with a copy of the completed assessment form. You must then scan it and upload each form into the unit Moodle site using the link provided. The form for each attempted assessment, whether passed or not, must be uploaded into Moodle.

There is no limit to the number of attempts you may make at any performance assessment. However, you must recognise that the clinical site staff's first priority is patient care.

Over the course of the placement, you must pass a total of 4 performance assessments as detailed below:

Each assessment must be on an examination of a different anatomical region as described above. You may not, for example, complete an assessment for a wrist and later complete an assessment for an elbow, as these are both categories within the 'upper extremities' anatomical region.

In order to achieve a score of ‘requirements met’ for this assessment, you must:

• Upload the assessments into Moodle within 3 days of completing the weekly shift in which the assessment was completed.
• Ensure that all completed assessment forms are signed and dated by you and the radiographer who performed the assessment.
• Ensure that the four assessments are completed on different anatomical regions as described within the task description.
• Achieve a score of at least '5' in the critical tasks 1 & 2.
• Achieve a minimum score of '3' in other tasks, with a maximum of 5 scores of '3' allowable
• Achieve a score of '4' or better in all other tasks.