How do Medical Radiation Science educators keep up with the [clinical] Joneses?
- School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia (Australia)
Medical radiation science (MRS) disciplines include medical imaging, radiation therapy and nuclear medicine. These allied health fields are technology driven and evolving rapidly with regard to imaging and treatment techniques within the clinical environment. This research aims to identify the activities academics are currently participating in to maintain clinical currency and offer strategies to support academics to connect with an ever-changing clinical environment. A cross-sectional designed survey was sampled across the nine Australian universities where MRS programmes are offered. The survey targeted academic teaching staff that were working in MRS programmes at the time of distribution (n ≈ 90). Enablers and barriers to maintaining clinical currency as well as support to participate in continuing professional development were rated by the respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse quantitative data, and free-text comment responses were collated and themed. There were 38 responses to the survey (42%) and all three disciplines were represented. Responses highlighted activities valued by academics as contributing to their knowledge of current practice and as resources to inform their teaching. Positive elements included participating in clinical work and research, attending clinical sites and training days and attending scientific meetings. Common barriers identified by academics in this area were time constraints, workload allocation and employer/financial support. This research has identified that Australian MRS academics participate in a broad range of activities to inform their teaching and maintain knowledge of contemporary clinical practice. A connection with the clinical world is valued highly by academics, however, access and support to maintain that link is often a difficulty and as a result for MRS teaching staff keeping up with the clinical [MRS] Joneses is often a challenge.
- OSTI ID:
- 22402347
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Medical Radiation Sciences (Print), Vol. 61, Issue 2; Other Information: PMCID: PMC4175838; PMID: 26229644; OAI: oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4175838; Copyright (c) 2014 The Author. Journal of Medical Radiation Sciences published by Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd on behalf of Australian Institute of Radiography and New Zealand Institute of Medical Radiation Technology.; This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2051-3895
- Country of Publication:
- Australia
- Language:
- English
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