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.

For this unit you must attend five weeks of full-time clinical placement (or the equivalent number of days through an alternative scheduling arrangement), excluding public holidays. Week 1 of the placement provides your orientation to the placement site (including the facility, staff, policies, protocols, equipment and workflow), with the following four weeks for clinical experience. The placement location(s) and timing have been arranged by the university in order to provide sufficient learning and assessment opportunities for you to meet the unit learning outcomes.

Your rostering, including daily start and end times, is determined by the clinical supervisor of the allocated placement site. The roster depends on the scheduling of imaging procedures that are relevant to your educational requirements, the typical hours of operation of the clinical facility and availability of sufficient supervision. You should not expect the roster to be modified to suit your personal life. There are no allocated personal leave days during this placement. You are not permitted to work extra shifts 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 5 weeks of full-time placement, minus any absence 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. Note that only in exceptional circumstances will any missed time be waived. 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.

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 the last rostered shift of the week.

At the end of the scheduled 5 weeks of placement, if you have not met the 100% attendance requirement AND you have documented justifiable grounds for your 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 5 week placement, and/or may not be at the same placement site, depending on clinical availability.

At the end of the scheduled 5 weeks of placement, if you have not met the 100% attendance requirement AND you do not have documented justifiable grounds for the absence, you will score Fail for this assessment item.

The clinical logbook serves as a record of your depth and breadth of experience attained during the placement. It demonstrates the degree of progression of your skill development within and across procedure types. You should use this record to inform your reflection on learning and 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 must have watched the radiographer(s) carry out the procedure, and your involvement in the case has been limited to an occasional task 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 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 information is to be recorded in such a way as to maintain patient confidentiality.

You must log any performance assessments 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 must include 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 prevent you from being able to 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 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.

MRPBA Professional Capabilities and NSQHS Standards

This assessment task maps to the following MRPBA professional Capabilities (2020) and NSQHS Standards (2021):

MRPBA Domain 1A, Key Capability 1

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 logbook is complete and accurate in regards to your attendance, your participation in imaging procedures, 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.

During the 5 weeks of clinical experience, you are expected to further develop proficiency in general radiography of the axial and appendicular skeleton (including craniofacial structures), chest and abdomen.

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 (refer to table below in Assessment Criteria section), 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 the 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. 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 must create a remediation plan based on the feedback. Once you have carried out that remediation you may re-attempt the assessment.

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 the time available as well as the availability of suitable patients and suitable 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. If there are extenuating circumstances at the clinical facility that limit your ability to access radiographic examinations to undergo assessments, then you must discuss this with your clinical supervisor AND contact the unit coordinator in a timely manner.

Over the course of the placement, you must pass five (5) performance assessments in general radiography. Each assessment must be on an examination of a different anatomical region as described below. You may not, for example, complete an assessment for a wrist and later complete an assessment for an elbow, as these are both categories within the 'upper extremities' anatomical region. Three of the five must be from the regions of the spine, craniofacial, bony thorax, shoulder girdle, pelvic girdle or dental. The other assessments must be on an examination from the other anatomical regions, not previously assessed during this placement.

• upper extremities
• lower extremities
• shoulder girdle
• pelvic girdle
• bony thorax
• spine
• chest
• abdomen
• cranio-facial
• dental

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. This is the case whether you have passed or failed the assessment. If this information is not on the form, you will be provided with feedback and will need to have the form updated by your assessor to resubmit within one week. You are responsible for ensuring 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 must then scan it and upload each form into the unit Moodle site using the link provided. The form for each attempted assessment, whether passed or not, must be uploaded into Moodle.

Each completed performance assessment form from Weeks 1 – 4 must be uploaded within 3 days of completing the weekly shift in which the assessment was completed. However, the final date for completing and submitting all forms is Tuesday of Week 5. That means any assessments completed in the first two days of Week 5 must be submitted immediately. Any performance assessments completed after that date will be accepted only with an approved extension from the unit coordinator. If you are unable to meet the stated due dates for uploading your completed form, you must inform your unit coordinator by the due date and provide just cause.

If performance assessments are returned to you 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.

MRPBA Professional Capabilities and NSQHS Standards

This assessment task maps to the following MRPBA professional Capabilities (2020) and NSQHS Standards (2021):

MRPBA Domain 1, Key Capability 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7

MRPBA Domain 1A, Key Capability 1

MRPBA Domain 2, Key Capability 1, 2, 3, 4

MRPBA Domain 3, Key Capability 1, 2

MRPBA Domain 5, Key Capability 1, 2, 3, 4

NSQHS Standard 2

NSQHS Standard 3

NSQHS Standard 6

You must meet the minimum requirements for all performance assessments. Each performance assessment measures your ability to carry out core tasks of an imaging examination. There are 'critical' and 'non-critical' tasks. The assessor will score your observed performance of each task using the 1 - 6 scale listed below. The scale is based on quantity of assistance and correction you required to perform each task.

To obtain a score of Pass score on each of the five performance assessments, you must achieve the following scores:

• a minimum score of '5' for critical tasks 1 & 2
• no more than 1 non-critical task scored at '3'
• 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 Assessment Criteria,
• ensure that each of the 5 performance assessments are completed on different anatomical regions, as detailed above in Task Description, 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 site's policies. 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. 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 behaviours over a span of time. This is not limited to a particular examination type 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 four 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 demonstrating them most of the time, but further development may be required to reach the level expected of a graduate practitioner. 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 'Adherence 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 Student Conduct Policy and Procedure.

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

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

Self-assessment

It is your responsibility to ensure that you remind your clinical supervisor at least one week prior to the assessment that it requires completion, 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.

For both Week 3 and Week 5 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 site using the link provided. You are also required to log these assessment meetings in Section 3 of your relevant weekly logs, including the meeting date and a brief summary of the discussion plus the overall score of each assessment.

It is your responsibility to ensure 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.

MRPBA Professional Capabilities and NSQHS Standards

This assessment task maps to the following MRPBA professional Capabilities (2020) and NSQHS Standards (2021):

MRPBA Domain 1, Key Capability 2, 7

MRPBA domain 1A, Key Capability 1

MRPBA Domain 2, Key Capability 1, 2, 3, 5

MRPBA Domain 3, Key Capability 1, 2

MRPBA Domain 4, Key Capability 1, 2

MRPBA Domain 5, Key Capability 1, 2, 3, 4

The criteria for assessment are detailed on the Global Assessment of Professional Attributes form in the form of required behaviours and attributes. 

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 section's non-critical behaviours and attributes are:

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

• no scores of '1' or '2'
• no more than 3 scores of '3'
• the remainder of behaviours scored at '4' or higher

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

• Minimum score of '4' in all areas

For Section 3: Overall Technical Knowledge and Skill, which has five required behaviours, the minimum required scores are:

• Minimum score of '3' in all areas

Critical Behaviour

For Section 4:  Adheres to site policies on privacy, confidentiality, use of mobile devices and use of social media. This is scored separately using the following scale:

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

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 your development as an imaging professional and your goal-setting to improve your practice.

In order to complete this task, you must keep a note of either your technical skills using the technical reflective flow chart or a note of your skills in communication using the interaction reflective flow chart (flow charts can be found on the unit Moodle site). You would have reflected on one of these topics in your first clinical placement, MEDI12004. You MUST reflect on the other topic on this placement.

Part A: By Week 3, use the relevant flow chart to assess your skills in the required area (technical or interactive). Having assessed your skills, and received your GAPA feedback, by the end of Week 3 you must reflect on one aspect of your skill set in that area. This part should be approximately 300-500 words.

Part B: Using the deeper understanding you have obtained from your reflection, develop one (1) 'SMART' goal to address this particular aspect of your performance - that is, the goal must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-specific. Ensure that any goal you set is able to be completed within the final two weeks of your clinical unit. Use the SMART goal template provided on the unit Moodle site.

Part C: At the end of your clinical unit, reflect on your SMART goal and describe if you reached your goal, what you did to achieve this, or why you did not and what you could and should have done to ensure success. Describe how these goals have assisted in your continuing development as an imaging professional. Aim for approximately 500 words for Part C.

Please note that all parts of this task must be submitted at the same time. As a reflective report, it is acceptable to use the first person for this assessment piece. You MUST use relevant external sources of information to aid your reflection and these should be referenced in the Vancouver style.

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 for this assessment, and that will result in a Fail grade for the unit.

MRPBA Professional Capabilities and NSQHS Standards

This assessment task maps to the following MRPBA professional Capabilities (2020) and NSQHS Standards (2021):

MRPBA Domain 4, Key Capability 1, 2

You must reflect on the topic (interactive or technical) that you did not reflect upon in MEDI12004.

 The reflection and goal setting submission will be assessed for:

• depth of reflection regarding your perceived gaps in knowledge, technical abilities or professional behaviour,
• creation of a goal that explicitly meets the SMART criteria,
• depth of reflection regarding the achievement of your SMART goal,
• identification of how this reflection and goal setting experience has affected your development and your own learning journey, 
• clarity and format of writing (including logical flow, spelling, punctuation, grammar),
• referencing (including use of appropriate external sources and skill in using Vancouver referencing system).

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.

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

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

• submit the assessment by the stated due date, and
• meet the Pass requirements in all stated criteria after a maximum of two attempts (initial submission and one re-submission).