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 16 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.

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 16 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. You are not permitted to work extra shifts back to back in order to reduce the duration of the clinical placement.

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.

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. There are five allocated personal leave days during this placement. You are not required to take this leave, but you do have the flexibility to use the five personal leave days as a single week-long block or as a combination of single or multiple days. Personal leave days may only be taken with the explicit approval of your clinical supervisor, and any leave days taken will add to the length of your clinical placement. Your personal leave days must be used for missed time due to illness, injury, caregiver responsibilities or other personal reasons for missing placement. Use the leave application form on the unit Moodle site to seek the approval of your clinical supervisor and upload the completed form to Moodle.

All unapproved absences must by 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 (eg. 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.

For any time missed beyond the five personal leave days, 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. Note that only in exceptional circumstances will any missed time be waived.

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 including scheduled leave days, 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 your log book within three days of the last rostered shift of every second week of the placement.

At the end of the scheduled 17 weeks of placement, if you have not met the 100% attendance requirement (16 weeks) AND you have documented, justifiable grounds for your absence, 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 placement, and/or may not be at the same placement site, depending on clinical availability.

At the end of the scheduled 17 weeks of placement, if you have not met the 100% attendance requirement (16 weeks) 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 and will be a useful tool as you apply for employment. 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 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 whose age warrants a modified approach (patient care and/or technical tasks) to carrying out the procedure relative to a basic adult patient.

All procedure 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.

In addition to noting imaging procedures and performance assessments, your logbook must have a minimum of 3 notation entries each week. This could include documentation of other clinical learning activities or explanation of types of x-rays, scans, patients, scenarios or helpful tips that you encountered throughout the week.

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. As per the posted instructions, you must use Microsoft Excel for data entry and save the file in its native Excel file format. This same master file must be updated weekly, so that each week’s submission is a cumulative record of all week's contains a running tally of examinations and assessments.

Even though you will be recording your weekly attendance and imaging examinations under the relevant week within the logbook, you will only be required to upload the logbook fortnightly, within 3 calendar days of the last shift completed of every second week of placement.

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 prevents you from being able to accurately complete and upload your file by the standard due dates, you MUST inform your unit coordinator by the due date and provide just cause. If you miss the due date without just cause OR if your logbook is returned to you for correction due to inaccuracies or incompleteness more than twice, you will fail this assessment task.

The logbook is graded on a Pass/Fail basis. The logbook is assessed for 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 the week's log.

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

• ensure that your logbook 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,
• ensure the integrity of the file format of the logbook is maintained,
• each week, submit your completed logbook within three days of the last rostered shift of every second week of placement, AND
• have your logbook returned to you for correction or lateness fewer than three times during the clinical placement.

At this stage in your professional education, as a close-to-graduating radiographer, your performance should be consistent and holistic in nature, taking into account the needs of the patient and the wider care team.

During this practicum, you are required to attain entry-to-practice skills in two (2) additional areas within the scope of practice of a general radiographer. These can be any two (2) from the list below, according to what is available at the facility you are attending for the practicum. You will need to consult with your clinical supervisor to determine two (2) suitable areas of practice and to arrange your roster to attain several weeks of experience in each.

Areas of practice:

• Basic computed tomography including contrast examinations, but not including angiography examinations
• Basic fluoroscopic guidance procedures, not including theatre imaging
• Imaging procedures that require a team approach and complex imaging requirements (this may include, but is not limited to, the resuscitation area, major trauma, or highly involved patient needs)
• Theatre fluoroscopic imaging
• Interventional radiography
• Mammography

If there are extenuating circumstances at the clinical facility that limit your ability to access imaging procedures to undergo assessments, then you must discuss this with your clinical supervisor AND contact the unit coordinator in a timely manner.

These assessments are designed to offer an overview of your performance over time rather than the "snapshot" performance assessments used in previous clinical units.

You must achieve a level of "competent" in both areas of practice. If any area of practice falls below this level, you must complete a remediation plan detailing how you intend to improve your performance in the required area/s. This remediation plan must be submitted to and approved by your clinical supervisor and unit coordinator within one calendar week of the assessment.

You are strongly advised to complete both of these assessments by week 12 in order to allow time for the development, approval and implementation of a remediation plan if needed. Within the remaining 3 weeks of your clinical placement, the area/s of practice in need of remediation must be re-assessed.

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. (Note that both your signature and your assessor's signature must be done on a hard copy document. Digital signatures are not accepted.) If you submit an incomplete form, you will be provided with feedback and will need to resubmit the completed form within one week. This is the case whether you have passed or failed the assessment.

If a radiographer other than your clinical supervisor completes the assessment, it is your responsibility to ensure 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. The only file formats accepted for these uploads is PDF. Each completed assessment form must be uploaded within 3 days at the end of the week in which the assessment was performed.

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 Holistic Assessment in Other Procedure Area assesses the attributes required to perform imaging tasks in two different areas of practice, as listed above, beyond general x-ray imaging throughout your final clinical placement. 

The assessor will score your observed holistic performance of listed attributes for each different area of practice using the scores of: progressing; consolidating; competent; independent practitioner. The score descriptors and attributes are detailed on the assessment form.

Attributes assessed:

• Team-work
• Degree of independence in completing routine tasks
• Clinical reasoning
• Effective imaging procedural knowledge and skill
• Protocol use
• Image evaluation
• Patient care
• Ability to use time efficiently
• Logical work-flow.

To achieve a grade of 'Pass' in this assessment you must:

• complete two assessments of performance in other imaging areas as detailed in the Task Description and the Assessment Criteria,
• ensure the documentation of each completed assessment form is complete as detailed in the Task Description above,
• upload each assessment form within three days of the last rostered shift of the week in which the assessment was completed, and
• attain a minimum score of "competent" in all attributes in both of your assessments.

At this stage in your professional education, as a close-to-graduating radiographer, your performance should be consistent and holistic in nature, taking into account the needs of the patient and the wider care team.

At weeks 8 and 16 of your placement, your clinical supervisor, or a supervising radiographer who has been delegated this role, will assess your holistic performance in general imaging examinations using the assessment form provided on the unit Moodle site.

These assessments are designed to offer an overview of your performance over time rather than the "snapshot" performance assessments used in previous clinical units.

At week 8 - You should achieve a minimum level of "competent" in all attributes. If any attributes fall below the required level, you must complete a remediation plan detailing how you intend to improve your performance in the required attribute/s. This remediation plan must be submitted and approved by both your clinical supervisor and the unit coordinator by the end of week 10. During week 12, the attribute/s in need of remediation must be re-assessed.

The assessments in week 8 and 12 (if required) are formative but you should aim for a level of "competent" if you are to succeed in the final summative assessment in week 16.

At week 16 - In order to successfully complete this unit, you must demonstrate all marking rubric attributes as “competent” or higher.

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. (Note that both your signature and your assessor's signature must be done on a hard copy document. Digital signatures are not accepted.) If you submit an incomplete form, you will be provided with feedback and will need to resubmit the completed form within one week. This is the case whether you have passed or failed the assessment.

If a radiographer other than your clinical supervisor completes the assessment, it is your responsibility to ensure 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. The only file format accepted for these uploads is PDF. Each completed performance assessment form must be uploaded within 3 days at the end of the week in which the assessment was performed.

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 Holistic Assessment in General Radiography assesses the attributes required to perform general x-ray imaging tasks throughout your final clinical placement. 

The assessor will score your observed holistic performance of listed attributes using the scores of: progressing; consolidating; competent; independent practitioner. The score descriptors and attributes are detailed on the assessment form.

Attributes assessed:

• Degree of independence when performing routine imaging examinations
• Clinical reasoning
• Protocol use
• Effective general imaging knowledge and skill
• Image evaluation
• Patient care
• Time efficiency during imaging
• Logical work-flow.

To achieve a grade of 'Pass' for this assessment you must:

• ensure the documentation of each completed assessment form is complete as detailed in the Task Description above,
• upload each assessment form for performance in general imaging examinations within three days of the last rostered shift of the week in which the assessment was completed, and
• attain a minimum score of "competent" in all attributes for the assessment completed in week 16.

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, present a positive image to the clinical facility's staff and clients and comply with the site’s policies. As a student in a regulated healthcare profession in Australia, you are also required to be working towards consistent compliance with the Professions' Code of Conduct. As a CQUniversity student you must also meet the General Behavioural Requirements of the Student Behavioural Misconduct Procedure and refrain from Misconduct as described in that Procedure.

Assessment Process:

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 behaviour over a span of time. This is not limited to a particular procedure or patient case. The observations and feedback are then used to complete the Global Assessment of Professional Attributes (GAPA) form provided on the unit Moodle site.

There are 4 main sections to the global assessment form:

• Section 1: initiative and communication
• Section 2: responsibility and demeanour
• Section 3: overall technical knowledge and skill
• Section 4: adherence to site policies.

In each section, there are multiple observable behaviours that are required. For most behaviours, it is expected that you are aiming toward consistent performance but are still developing toward entry to practice level. These behaviours are categorised as non-critical.

There is one critical behaviour: adhering to site policies. It is expected that all students, right from their first placement, are capable of full and ongoing compliance with site policies. This critical behaviour 'Adheres to site policies regarding privacy, confidentiality, use of mobile devices and use of social media' is scored separately using the following scale:

• Full compliance
• One incident of non-compliance
• More than one incident of non-compliance.

A student who is non-compliant on a single occasion will receive a warning from the supervising radiographer or clinical supervisor. This incident will be considered behavioural misconduct. This warning may be issued initially in verbal form or in writing. The clinical supervisor will inform the unit coordinator (UC) of the situation. The Head of Course will then lodge a formal report of behavioural misconduct. This will be addressed separately from the scoring of the GAPA.

Any student who violates site policy more than once during a placement unit (whether violation of the same or a different policy as previously) will fail the GAPA. This will result in a fail grade for the unit. This repeated behaviour is considered Serious Misconduct and thus will also be dealt with under the procedure of the Student Behavioural Misconduct.

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. 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.

Timing of Assessment:

This assessment occurs four times during the placement. The first occurs at the end of Week 4, the second at the end of Week 8, and the third at the end of Week 12. The fourth and final GAPA assessment occurs toward the end of Week 16 (or the final week of your placement).

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 them 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 they will not be available.

Formative and Summative Use of the GAPA assessment:

These first three 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 final 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).

Self-assessment:

For all GAPAs, prior to meeting with your supervisor, you must also use the assessment tool to self-assess your behaviours. Complete the form and take it with you to your meeting with your supervisor to aid in the discussion of your progress.

Documentation and submission requirements:

Once you have met with your supervisor about your GAPA, you both need to sign and date both assessment documents (your supervisor’s assessment and your self-assessment). You need to ensure that each completed assessment form has scores entered in all sections and has all required fields completed, including the name, dated signature and registration number of your assessor as well as your dated signature. (Note that both you and your supervisor must sign a hard copy document. Electronic signatures are not accepted.)

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 page using the link provided. The only file format accepted for these uploads is PDF. You are 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 regular access to the technology needed to upload your assessment files by the submission due dates. Recognise that the clinical facility is not responsible for providing you access to computer facilities for your assessments.

If you have a technical issue or personal circumstances that prevent you from being able to accurately complete and upload your file by the standard due date, you MUST inform the unit coordinator by the due date and provide just cause.  If you miss the due date without just cause OR if your supervisor-completed GAPA or self-completed GAPA is returned to you for correction due to inaccuracies or incompleteness more than twice, you will fail this assessment task.

Assessment Due Dates and Extensions:

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 to explain the situation and request an extension. 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.

Non-critical behaviours and attributes:

The assessor will use the stated 1-6 scale to indicate the frequency and extent to which you demonstrate each of those.

Scores and Descriptors for non-critical behaviours and attributes:

NA - No opportunity or insufficient opportunity to assess

1 - Never or hardly ever demonstrated (<10%)

2 - Demonstrated infrequently but less than half of the time

3 - Demonstrated about half of the time (just as likely to happen as not)

4 - Demonstrated much of the time, but still inconsistent

5 - Demonstrated consistently (nearly always, at the level expected of a new graduate practitioner)

6 - Demonstrated consistently and to a high degree (at the level expected of an experienced practitioner).

The minimum required scores for each sections non-critical behaviours and attributes are:

Section 1: Initiative and Communication

• Minimum score of 5

• No more than one score at NA.

Section 2: Responsibility and Demeanour

• Minimum score of 5

• No more than one score at NA.

Section 3: Overall Technical Knowledge and Skill

• Minimum score of 5

• No scores of NA.

Critical behaviour:

The behaviour 'Adheres to site policies on privacy, confidentiality, use of mobile devices and use of social media' is scored separately using the following scale:

• Full compliance

• One incident of non-compliance

• More than one incident of non-compliance.

A student who is non-compliant on a single occasion will receive a warning from the supervising radiographer or clinical supervisor. This incident will be considered behavioural misconduct. This warning may be issued initially in verbal form or in writing. The clinical supervisor will inform the unit coordinator (UC) of the situation. The Head of Course will then lodge a formal report of behavioural misconduct. This will be addressed separately from the scoring of the GAPA.

Any student who violates site policy more than once during a placement unit (whether violation of the same or a different policy as previously) will fail the GAPA. This will result in a Fail grade for the unit. This repeated behaviour is considered Serious Misconduct and thus will also be dealt with under the procedure of Student Behavioural Misconduct.

To achieve a grade of 'Pass' in this assessment task, you must:

• undergo all four assessments by the due dates listed, and
• on the final assessment, meet the minimum required scores in all sections, and
• ensure the documentation of each assessment is complete as detailed in the Task Description above, and
• upload each completed supervisor-assessed and self-assessed GAPA form into the unit Moodle site by the due date, and
• have your supervisor-completed GAPA and self-completed GAPA returned to you for correction or lateness fewer than three times during the placement.

Critical reflection and reflective practice are recognised as being valuable in the development of health professionals. As a student radiographer, you have reflected on your practice many times and this process will continue throughout your career to enable you to become an expert practitioner.

During the 16 week clinical practicum you must complete two (2) different reflections from the list of four choices below:

• Consider identified gaps in your learning and a strategy to remediate them
• Consider your patient care skills and professionalism demonstrated in the workplace and how you plan to develop/enhance these skills
• Consider how you manage the emotional and cognitive demands of performing imaging in high pressure settings, and a strategy to develop/enhance your coping skills
• Consider your understanding and confidence in more specialised areas of practice, together with a strategy to ensure your continued development in your chosen area.

Other submission requirements:

• the only file format accepted for this submission is PDF
• your writing must correctly use either the Gibbs' or Borton's reflective tool proforma (available on the unit Moodle site)
• you must use relevant external sources of information to aid your reflection and these should be referenced in the Harvard style
• you cannot repeat reflections used for previous clinical placement units, as that is considered self-plagiarism as defined in the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedures document
• patient and staff confidentiality must always be maintained
• as a reflection, it is appropriate to write this in the first person.

Further assessment instructions will be available on the unit Moodle site.

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.

Each reflection submission is assessed for:

• correct use of the Gibbs' or Borton's reflective tool proforma,
• critical reflection of an approved topic listed in the Task Description that you have not reflected on in previous clinical placement units,
• detailed analysis of performance,
• critical reflection on areas for improvement,
• detailed action plan relevant to reflection,
• demonstrated evidence of learning and development through reflection,
• use of external resources to support your reflection, that are cited and referenced correctly, and
• clarity and format of writing (including logical flow, spelling, punctuation).

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

You must meet the minimum 'Pass' requirements for all reflections on their initial submission. No re-submissions are allowed because you should have attained this level of performance in your reflections in the prerequisite clinical placement unit.

If you do not meet the minimum 'Pass' requirements for all reflections on their initial submission, you will fail this assessment and you will receive a Fail grade for the placement unit.

To obtain a score of ‘Pass’ for this assessment, you must:

• submit the two (2) reflections by the stated deadlines, and
• attain a 'requirements met' score for all marking rubric criteria, for both reflections, on their initial submission.