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 11 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. 

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 11 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 clinical placement.

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 (5) allocated personal leave days during this placement. You 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. If you use any leave days in Weeks 1-11, then you will attend into your 12th scheduled week. If you have not used any leave in Weeks 1-11, then Week 11 is your final week of the placement. 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 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.

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 must 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. 

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 3 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 (11 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 12 weeks of placement, if you have not met the 100% attendance requirement (11 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. 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 definitions provided. There are no minimum or maximum target numbers for any category of involvement, nor are there target numbers for any examination type.

• 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 type by:

• Basic: The patient has no significant limitation in their ability to carry out your instructions, and the 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. This includes patients with minor traumatic injuries.
• 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 a 'basic' patient.
• Trauma: The patient has major traumatic injury/injuries requiring significant modification to your approach (patient care and/or technical tasks).

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

You must log any performance assessments that you have attempted, whether passed or failed. All completed assessment forms are an extension of your log documentation, as they provide further evidence of your clinical learning experiences. 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 facility induction and orientation must be completed by your second day of placement and logged in your logbook. If you have not completed a site induction/orientation by the end of the second day of placement, see your clinical educator/site supervisor and contact your unit coordinator to advise.

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 to ensure that tracking calculations are correct. 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 weeks containing a running tally of examinations and assessments. 

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 more than twice 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 that 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, and
• meet the stated standards of documentation completeness and timeliness, such that you have no more than two incidents in total of incompleteness or lateness.

This task is designed to assess your level of competency in the performance of general radiographic examinations, CT procedures, mobile radiography, theatre fluoroscopy and/or screening fluoroscopy procedures.

Planning for performance assessments:

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 weeks for CT, ~4 weeks for mobiles/theatre/fluoroscopy and ~4 weeks for general radiography). It is also your responsibility to schedule the assessments during the weeks you are rostered into the appropriate work areas.

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. Opportunities for assessment are limited by time available as well as the availability of suitable patients and suitable procedures. 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. 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, so that action can be taken prior to the end of placement.

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 will 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 radiographic 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 in that single examination or procedure. The assessment is formative as well as summative in that it provides you with feedback on your relative strengths and areas for improvement. Should you not attain the minimum required score, you should create a remediation plan based on the feedback. Once you have carried out that remediation you may re-attempt the assessment.

Scope of assessments:

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

General Radiography

You must pass six (6) performance assessments in general radiography. Each of these six (6) assessments must be completed on a different region of the body as categorised below:

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

Three (3) of these assessments must be completed on complex patients. A complex patient is defined as  - the patient's condition is such that you must significantly modify your approach (patient care and/or technical tasks) to carry out the procedure relative to the requirements for a 'basic' patient. This includes patients with minor traumatic injuries. 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. Paediatric patients are categorised as complex only if significant adaptation is required.

The other three (3) assessments may be on any type of patient (basic or complex). Any basic assessments are limited to the following body regions:

• craniofacial
• dental
• spine
• pelvic girdle
• bony thorax
• shoulder girdle

Adaptation Imaging in Complex Environments

You must pass two (2) performance assessments in adaptation imaging. These may be for mobile radiography, theatre fluoroscopy and/or screening fluoroscopy. 

It is a course requirement that each student must complete at least one mobile radiography, one theatre fluoroscopy and and one screening fluoroscopy assessment in either MEDI13005 Medical Imaging Clinical Placement 3 or MEDI14006 Medical Imaging Clinical Placement 4. Thus, any of those three categories of assessments that you did not complete in your previous unit (MEDI13005) must be completed successfully during this unit.

Computed Tomography (CT)

You must pass two (2) performance assessments in CT.

Both CT performance assessments must be different examinations to those assessed in MEDI13005. One assessment must be contrast and the other can be either contrast or non-contrast.

For all performance assessments in all categories above, each must be completed on a separate patient presentation. It is not acceptable to image a single patient for several anatomical areas during one attendance and use those examinations for several performance assessments.

Documentation and submission of the completed assessment:

You must 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 they are 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. 

If your performance assessment is returned to you for correction due to incompleteness, OR, if you miss the due date without just cause more than twice, you will fail this assessment task.

This is a pass/fail assessment item. In the absence of an approved assessment extension, if you have not met all of the minimum 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 a radiographic imaging procedure. These tasks are detailed on the assessment form. For each of the performance assessment forms - general radiography (basic and complex), CT, and mobile radiography, theatre fluoroscopy and screening fluoroscopy, there are 'critical' and 'non-critical' tasks. The assessor will score your observed performance of each listed task using the 1 - 6 scale, below. 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 critical tasks
• for basic assessments, at least 7 non-critical tasks scored at '5' or better
• for complex assessments, at least 6 non-critical tasks scored at '5' or better
• 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:

• Non-contrast CT Examination 
  • a minimum score of '5' on critical tasks
  • at least 7 non-critical tasks scored at '5' or better
  • all remaining non-critical tasks scored at '4' or better

• Contrast CT Examination

• • a minimum score of '5' on all critical tasks
  • at least 7 non-critical tasks scored at '5' or better
  • all remaining non-critical tasks scored at '4' or better

To achieve a 'Pass' score on a mobile radiography, screening fluoroscopy or theatre imaging performance assessment, you must achieve the following scores:

• a minimum score of '5' on all critical tasks (3 tasks for mobiles, 2 tasks for theatre, 5 tasks for fluoroscopy)
• at least 8 non-critical tasks scored at '5' or better for mobiles and theatre radiography,
• at least 7 non-critical tasks scored at '5' or better for fluoroscopy
• all remaining non-critical tasks scored at '4' or better

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

• meet the minimum requirements for each assessment, as detailed above in the Assessment Criteria,
• ensure that each of the ten performance assessments are completed on an appropriate procedure or body region as detailed in the Task Description above, and
• meet the stated standards of documentation completeness and timeliness, such that you have no more than two incidents in total of incompleteness or lateness.

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 GAPA 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. 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 three times during the placement. The first occurs at the end of Week 4 and the second occurs at the end of Week 8. The third and final GAPA assessment occurs in the final week of the placement. If you haven't used any of your assigned days of leave during your placement, the final GAPA will be at the end of Week 11, or if you have taken 1-5 days of leave then your final GAPA will be in Week 12.

In the instance where you have a split placement scheduled across two or more sites, a formative GAPA is to be completed in the last week of the block of the rotation at each of the sites (just before leaving the site to attend another site), and a GAPA should be completed at least once every four weeks.

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 completed 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:

The 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 for Sections 1, 2 and 3. 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 GAPAs, it is expected that you will continue to meet that level of performance or surpass it for the remainder of the placement.

The end-of-placement GAPA 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 fourth of five in the course, you should also use this final assessment as formative, to help inform your plans for improvement that you can implement in your fifth and final placement.

Self-assessment:

For all GAPAs, prior to meeting with your supervisor, you must also use the assessment tool to self-assess your behaviours. You must 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 MRPBA 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 site using the link provided.

You are 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 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 placement 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.

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

Section 1: Initiative and Communication

• Minimum score of '4'
• At least 5 of the 9 categories are scored at '5' or above

Section 2: Responsibility and Demeanour

• Minimum score of '5'

Section 3: Overall Technical Knowledge and Skill

• Minimum of '5' for the use of equipment
• Minimum of '4' for other attributes
• At least 2 of the 4 remaining categories are scored at '5' or above

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.

Note the procedure for non-compliance with Section 4 of the GAPA, as detailed above in Task Description.

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

• undergo all GAPAs by the due dates listed, 
• on the summative GAPA, meet the minimum required scores in all sections, and
• meet the stated standards of documentation completeness and timeliness, such that you have no more than two incidents in total of incompleteness or lateness.

Critical reflection in an on-going cycle of experience, reflection, learning and practice is a critical skill for your professional development. Reflecting on your practice only at the end of your clinical block breaks this cycle and reduces your learning opportunities. For this reason, you will be required to complete a total of three (3) reflections during this placement.

Your three reflections must each be on a different topic chosen from the list below. You must complete a reflection on the topic of cultural awareness if you did not choose that topic to reflect on in your previous placement, MEDI13005. If, by the end of Week 8, you have not had any experience with patients of a different culture, then you must contact the Unit Coordinator who will assign you a substitute topic.

Reflection topics to choose from:

• Your cultural awareness and ability to respond to the needs of a patient with whom you are culturally different
• Your clinical decision-making
• An instance where you have advocated for your patient (spoken up on their behalf to benefit their care or medical pathway)
• Your increasing level of independence in practice
• An aspect of your skill development in adaptation radiography (e.g. fluoroscopy, mobile radiography or horizontal beam lateral hip radiography)
• A CPD activity that you have participated in.

Patient and staff confidentiality must always be maintained. Further guidance will be available on the unit Moodle site.

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 for this assessment, and that will result in 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,
• word count (excluding citations) must be between 400-600 words, and
• clarity and format of writing (including logical flow, spelling, punctuation, grammar).

A detailed marking rubric will be posted on the unit Moodle site to specify the 'Pass' requirements for each criterion listed above. You are required to achieve a 'Requirements met' score in all areas of the marking rubric.

You must meet the minimum 'Pass' requirements for all reflections on their initial submission. No resubmissions are allowed.

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 three reflections by the stated deadlines,
• attain a 'requirements met' score for all reflections on their initial submission.