CQUniversity Unit Profile.

Staff workplace attendance and the ability to participate in rosters are critical to the success and morale of a medical imaging team, and therefore the quality of patient care provided by that team.

This unit is part of a professionally accredited course with significant Work Integrated Learning components. For this unit you must attend 12 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 course 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 will not be permitted to work extra shifts to reduce the duration of 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 12 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,
• 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 12 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 in 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 on 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:

• Observed: you have watched the radiographer(s) carry out the procedure, and your involvement in the case has been limited to an occasional task directly assigned by someone else.
• Assisted in: you have been an integral member of the imaging team that is led by a radiographer, and you have carried out many tasks to support the completion of the procedure. You may have carried out all imaging tasks but were provided significant guidance and direction by your supervising radiographer.
• Performed: you have planned and carried out the imaging procedure with occasional guidance, assistance and/or direction provided by your supervising radiographer.

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

• Basic: the patient has no significant limitation in his/her ability to carry out your instructions, and procedure involves only standard views/projections that do not require significant customisation to the the patient's condition.
• Complex: The patient's condition is such that you must significantly modify your approach (patient care and/or technical tasks) to carrying out the procedure relative to the requirements for a basic patient.
• Paediatric: the patient is a child who is young enough to require you to modify your approach (patient care and/or technical tasks) to carrying out the procedure relative to the requirements for a basic patient.

All procedural information is to be recorded in such a way as to maintain patient confidentiality.

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. Should 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.

Reflection on your clinical practice is a necessary skill for your professional development, not only as a student, but also once qualified. Over the duration of your clinical placement, you are required to submit two reflections, which will complement learning from MEDI13006, Imaging Procedures 4, and will allow you to reflect upon your communication skills as a health professional.

Each reflection must address a different one of the topics below, and by the end of placement you must have completed two from the following four topics:

• Reflect on your communication with a patient, or carer of a patient, that you have imaged or assisted with imaging.
• Reflect on your communication with a radiographer or work colleague within the Medical Imaging department, during the course of an imaging examination.
• Reflect on your communication with a member of an external healthcare team, during the course of an imaging examination that is performed either within the Medical Imaging department or within another department, ie. Doctor/Nurse in theatre/ICU etc.
• Reflect on your cultural awareness and ability to respond to the needs of a patient with whom you are culturally different.

Other submission guidelines:

• as a reflection, it is appropriate to write this in the first person
• each reflection must be approximately 300 words, with a maximum of 500 words
• patient and staff confidentiality must be maintained at all times
• you cannot repeat reflections used for previous Clinical Placement units, as that is considered self-plagiarism as defined in the Academic Misconduct Procedures document
• any external sources should be referenced in the Harvard style

Because this is a pass/fail assessment item, in the absence of an approved extension, failure to submit by the due dates will result in a 'Fail' score for this assessment, and that will result in a 'Fail' grade for the unit.

The reflection submission is assessed for:

• use of an acknowledged reflective tool
• critical reflection of your professional practice in one of the topics, as stated in the Task Description,
• identification of causative factors that impacts your progress, 
• demonstrated evidence of learning and development through reflection, and
• clarity and format of writing (including logical flow, spelling, punctuation, grammar and correct use of Harvard system in citing external sources).

A marking rubric will be posted on the course Moodle site to specify the 'Pass' requirements for each criterion listed above. If you do not meet the requirements for the first reflection submitted, feedback will be provided by the unit coordinator and you will have one week to resubmit the reflection to meet the requirements. The Week 11 reflection must meet minimum requirements on initial submission.

The reflection assessments are scored on a Pass/Fail basis. To obtain a score of ‘Pass’ for this assessment, you must:

• submit the two reflections by the stated deadlines,
• attain a 'requirements met' score for the first reflection after a maximum of two submissions, and
• attain a 'requirements met' score for the second reflection on initial submission.

Reflection on your clinical practice, and the process of goal setting, are necessary skills for your professional development, not only as a student, but also once qualified. This assessment further develops your skills of reflection on practice and goal setting to improve your practice as you reflect upon the results and feedback from your Week 4 GAPA and develop a plan to address one of the weak areas of your performance.

You are to review your scores for each section of the completed supervisor-assessed Week 4 GAPA and select one of your lowest scoring attributes (it can be from any one of the three sections - Initiative and Communication, Responsibility and Demeanour, and Overall Technical Knowledge and Skill). Your low scoring attribute is one on which you need to focus your energies on improving.

The Reflective Report will be submitted in two parts:

Part A - For the selected low-scored attribute, reflect on your performance from the first four weeks of the placement. Use both your own observations and the feedback received at the Week 4 GAPA assessment. Did you expect the score you received, or were you surprised by it? Why? Compare your current performance in that attribute to your level of performance in your previous placement - have you progressed? Why or why not? What are contributing factors to your progress (or lack of it)? Include both external factors and internal factors (your emotional responses, assumptions and thinking processes) in these.

Using the deeper understanding of your thinking and actions that you have obtained from your reflection, develop an action plan that you will implement for the remainder of this placement to raise your performance in that low-scored attribute. This action plan is a SMART goal (specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic and time-based). By addressing each item in the SMART acronym you will articulate specific actions that you will implement in order to change what your supervising radiographers see of your behaviours related to that attribute.

Part A should be approximately 700-1000 words.

Part B - Using your own observations and evidence from your Week 12 GAPA, reflect on your SMART goal and describe if you reached your goal. Analyse what you did to achieve this, or why you did not and what you could and should have done to ensure success. Describe how this goal has assisted in your continuing development as an imaging professional and also how this goal setting process will shape your future personal development plans.

Part B should be approximately 500 words.

Format of submissions:

A Word template will be provided so that you will enter your response under each heading to address the required content points. As a reflective report, it is appropriate to write this in the first person. Relevant external sources should be used and correctly referenced with the Harvard system. You cannot use any of the scenarios from the Reflections submitted during this unit. Similarly, you cannot repeat reflections used for previous Clinical Placement units, as that is considered self-plagiarism as defined in the Academic Misconduct Procedures document.

Because this is a pass/fail assessment item, in the absence of an approved extension, failure to submit by the due date will result in a 'Fail' score for this assessment, and that will result in a 'Fail' grade for the unit.

The reflective report submissions will be assessed for:

• completeness of the submission (providing a response in each area of the template to address the stated questions and instructions in the task description),
• creation of a goal that explicitly meets the SMART criteria,
• depth of discussions (analysis, interpretation, evaluation, recognition of own thinking and actions),
• relevance and practicality of the proposed actions, and
  
• clarity and format of writing (including logical flow, spelling, punctuation, grammar and correct use of Harvard system in citing external sources).

A marking rubric will be posted on the course Moodle site to specify the 'Pass' requirements for each criterion listed above.

In the event that either part of your submission does not meet the 'Pass' requirements as per the rubric, you will be provided detailed feedback and guidance by the unit coordinator. You will then have one week to respond to the feedback and resubmit.

To attain a 'Pass' in this assessment item, you must:

• submit both parts of the assessment by the stated due dates, and
  
• for each part of the assessment, meet the 'Pass' requirements in all five stated criteria after a maximum of two attempts (initial submission and one re-submission).

During the twelve weeks of clinical experience, you are expected to further develop your proficiency in general radiography and adaptation imaging as well as develop your skills in computed tomography (CT).

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 need to ensure that each completed assessment form has all required information, including the name, dated signature and MRPBA 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 will 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.

Number and Types of Performance Assessments Required:

Over the course of the placement, you must pass a total of 10 performance assessments as detailed below by procedure category.

General Radiography

You must pass 6 performance assessments in general radiography. Each must be on a different region as categorised below:

• upper extremities
• lower extremities
• shoulder girdle
• pelvic girdle
• bony thorax
• spine
• chest
• abdomen
• craniofacial
• dental
  

Three of the six performance assessments in general radiography must be on a complex patient. A complex patient for MEDI13005 is defined as one who requires significant adaptation of the examination technique relative to the standard textbook approach. This adaptation may be required because of factors such as the patient's current health status, mobility, stability, cognitive status, communication abilities and/or ability to cooperate. The type of adaptation may include, but is not limited to, the approach to communicating with the patient, modification of patient positioning, the selection of views/projections to be obtained, infection control protocols to be followed. Your assessor will categorise the patient involved in the performance assessment as either basic or complex.

Adaptation Imaging in Complex Environments

You must pass 2 performance assessments in adaptation imaging. These may be for mobile radiography and/or theatre fluoroscopy. (Note: if at all possible, you should complete at least one theatre fluoroscopy assessment during this unit, because all students must complete at least one theatre fluoroscopy assessment in either MEDI13005 or MEDI14006.)

Computed Tomography (CT)

You must pass 2 performance assessments in non-contrast CT. Each must be on a different region from the list below:

• Head (including brain, facial bones or sinuses)
• Chest
• Abdomen/Pelvis
• Spine
• Extremities

Your preparation for performance assessments:

Opportunities for assessment are limited by rosters, time available, as well as the availability of suitable patients and suitable CT examinations. You need to take initiative in starting the assessment process in a timely manner in order to ensure you will complete the assessments in the placement time available. It is your responsibility to communicate with your supervisor in a timely manner to ensure that you are rostered into the required work areas for the targeted quantity of time (3 - 4 weeks for CT, 3 weeks for mobiles/theatre and 5 - 6 weeks for general radiography). It is also your responsibility to schedule the assessments during the weeks you are rostered into the appropriate work areas.

If there are circumstances at the clinical facility that limit your ability to access radiographic procedures to undergo assessments, then you must discuss this with your clinical supervisor AND contact the unit coordinator in a timely manner so that action can be taken prior to the end of the placement. In the absence of an approved assessment extension, if you have not met all of the criteria for achieving a score of Pass' on this assessment, you will receive a Fail grade for the unit.

Each performance assessment measures your ability to carry out the core tasks of an imaging examination. These tasks are detailed on the assessment form. For general radiography, mobile radiography and CT, there are twelve tasks - two tasks are 'critical' and the others are 'non-critical'. For theatre fluoroscopy, there are ten tasks - one is 'critical' and the others are 'non-critical'. The assessor will score your observed performance of each listed task using the 1 - 6 scale listed on the form. The scale is based on quantity of assistance and correction you required to perform each task.

To achieve a 'Pass' score on a general radiography performance assessment, you must achieve the following scores:

• a minimum score of 5 on both critical tasks,
• no tasks scored at 1, 2 or 3,
• maximum of 4 non-critical tasks scored at 4, and
• all remaining non-critical tasks scored at 5 or better.

To achieve a 'Pass' score on a mobile radiography performance assessment, you must achieve the following set of scores:

• a minimum score of 5 on both critical tasks,
• no tasks scored at 1, 2 or 3,
• at least 6 non-critical tasks scored at 5 or better, and
• all remaining non-critical tasks scored at 4 or better.

To achieve a 'Pass' score on a theatre fluoroscopy performance assessment, you must achieve the following set of scores:

• a minimum score of 5 on the critical task,
• no tasks scored at 1, 2 or 3,
• at least 3 non-critical tasks scored at 5 or better, and
• all remaining non-critical tasks scored at 4 or better.

To achieve a 'Pass' score on a CT performance assessment, you must achieve the following scores:

• a minimum score of 5 on both critical tasks,
• no tasks scored at 1 or 2,
• a maximum of 4 non-critical tasks scored at 3,
• at least 2 non-critical tasks scored at 5, and
• all remaining non-critical tasks scored at 4 or better.

This assessment item is marked on a Pass/Fail basis. To achieve a 'Pass', you must:

• Meet the minimum requirements for each assessment, as detailed above in the Assessment Criteria,
• Ensure that each of the 10 performance assessments are completed on an appropriate procedure or body region as detailed in the Task Description above,
  
• Ensure the documentation of each completed assessment form is complete as detailed in the Task Description above, AND
• Upload each assessment form within three days of the final rostered shift of the week in which the assessment was completed.

In the absence of an approved assessment extension, if you have not met all of the minimum criteria for achieving a Pass on this assessment, you will receive a Fail grade for the placement.

Clinical placement occurs in the professional workplace. As 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:

• Section 1: initiative and communication
• Section 2: responsibility and demeanour
• Section 3: overall technical knowledge and skill

This assessment occurs three times during the placement. The first occurs at the end of Week 4 and the second occurs at the end of Week 8. These first two GAPA assessments are formative, meaning their 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 these initial GAPA assessments, it is expected that you will continue to meet that level of performance or surpass it for the rest of the placement.

The third and final GAPA assessment occurs toward the end of Week 12, 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. As this placement is the third of five in the course, 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.

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.

For all GAPAs, prior to meeting with your supervisor, you must also use the assessment tool to self-assess your behaviours.  Take this form with you to your meeting with your supervisor to aid in the discussion of your progress.  This form must also be initialed and dated by your supervisor and yourself. 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 three 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.

The criteria for assessment are detailed on the GAPA form in terms of required behaviours and attributes. The assessor will use the stated 1-6 scale to indicate the frequency and extent to which you demonstrate each. The required behaviours and attributes are grouped into 3 sections, each with its own minimum required scores.

For Section 1: Initiative and Communication, which has nine behaviours, the minimum requirements are:

• no more than 1 score of NA,
• no scores of 1 or 2,
• no more than 1 score of 3, and
• the remainder of behaviours scored at 4 or higher.

For Section 2: Responsibility and Demeanour, which has ten behaviours, the minimum requirements are:

• no more than 1 score of NA,
• no scores of 1, 2 or 3,
• no more than 4 scores of 4, and
• the remainder of behaviours scored at 5 or higher.

For Section 3: Overall Technical Knowledge and Skill, which has three behaviours, the minimum requirements are:

• no scores of NA, and
• all behaviours scored at 4 or higher.

To obtain an overall score of ‘Pass’ for this assessment task, you must:

• undergo all three GAPA assessments by the due dates listed,
• on the end-of-placement supervisor-assessed GAPA assessment, meet the minimum required scores in all three sections,
• ensure the documentation of each assessment is complete, AND
• upload each self-assessed and supervisor-assessed completed GAPA form into the unit Moodle site within three days of your last rostered shift in which the GAPA was completed.