"HOW TO" . Incorporating education for sustainable development within a radiography curriculum: A narrative review.

OBJECTIVES: This narrative review aims to describe opportunities to embed sustainability as a core concept in radiography education by exploring teaching strategies to increase awareness about sustainability and its importance in radiography; encourage a culture of personal responsibility and investigate effective teaching methods to engage students in exploring sustainable radiography practices. Climate change can adversely affect the health of populations worldwide. Medical imaging and radiotherapy services are recognised as substantial contributors to the ecological impact of the healthcare industry. There is a need to address the inclusion of sustainability in radiography education due to its increasing relevance to complex cultural and environmental problems. KEY FINDINGS: Literature searches were conducted using CINAHL and Google Scholar, focusing on keywords such as "Sustainability," "Healthcare," and "Radiography Curriculum." A variety of teaching strategies are available to facilitate the instruction of sustainable healthcare practices. Many pedagogical methods promote emancipation and transformative learning, such as problem-based learning, case-study learning, debate, and participatory action research, contributing to a student-centred learning experience. Traditional lecturing and interprofessional teaching also enhance the learner experience by stimulating new ways of thinking. CONCLUSION: Communicating about climate change is important. The radiography curriculum should include education on sustainability for meaningful global health literacy, encourage active research involvement, and ensure that sustainable healthcare principles are incorporated into daily practice. IMPLICATIONS TO PRACTICE: Radiographers possess the ability to assess the various elements influencing a patient's health status and identify which aspects might affect their capacity for behaviour change. This empowers patients to effectively control their conditions within the framework of personalised care. Radiographers have the potential to motivate actions, shape policies, and drive transformation as advocates for environmental and health messengers.

Patient, public and practitioner partnership within imaging and radiotherapy: An exploration of the implementation and use of the college of radiographers guiding principles.

INTRODUCTION: In 2014 the National Health Service (NHS) in England released the Five Year Forward plan1, envisioning a shift in power from health professionals to patients and the public. In response the Society and College of Radiographers (SCoR) produced the "Patient, Public and Practitioner Partnership within Imaging and Radiotherapy: Guiding Principles" (P4) document which was implemented within four domains of radiography practice; service delivery, service development, education and research2. This project explored how these guidelines were implemented; and whether improvement to the quality and scope were needed, leading to making recommendations for updating the document. METHODS: A mixed methods design was adopted with two phases. Phase 1 - a survey exploring use of the P4 document's guiding principles. There was no maximum number of participants to ensure inclusivity. Phase 2 - one focus group and four one-to-one interviews from the four domains3. RESULTS: 626 participants completed the phase 1 survey. 18.85% (n=118) of participants were aware of the document and used it as a reference tool for practice, teaching, and research. 81.15% (n=508) of participants stated they were unaware of the document. Themes from phase 2; importance of service user involvement in service delivery and evaluation, resources to ensure service user involvement, suggestions to update the P4 document and use of the P4 document in radiographer education. Participants acknowledged guidance in the document was best practice. They reported more awareness of patients' needs and the effect this has on radiographers in supporting their needs. CONCLUSION: Participants recommended the document be given greater visibility. The voices of patients and the public must be heard within radiography practice. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Feedback from this study can be used for the future development of the P4 document.

The meaning of critical thinking in diagnostic radiography.

INTRODUCTION: The development and application of critical thinking skills is a requirement and expectation of higher education and clinical radiographic practice. There is a multitude of generic definitions of critical thinking, however, little is understood about what critical thinking means or how it develops through a course. Diagnostic radiography students struggle with demonstrating this skill to the desired expectation, and, in higher education it is assumed that students have an implicit understanding of what is required in relation to this expectation. This study explores radiography students' understanding and perceptions of the meaning of critical thinking in diagnostic radiography. METHODS: The research framework sits within the interpretive paradigm and was designed as a longitudinal study conducted over a three-year study period. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were employed as the means of gathering context-rich information from diagnostic radiography students (n = 13) who were purposively selected to participate in the study. FINDINGS: Three themes were constructed following the analysis and interpretation of the interview data. The themes were logical thinking involving analysis and evaluation, the process of decision-making, and reflection and metacognition. CONCLUSION: As participants progressed from year one to year three, they recognised that critical thinking comprised not only of cognitive skills but affective skills too. They attributed their developing understanding of the meaning of critical thinking to clinical placement learning, understanding written feedback, and the expectations of professional practice. Based on these findings a definition of critical thinking applicable to diagnostic radiography was developed. IMPLICATIONS FOR RADIOGRAPHY EDUCATION AND PRACTICE: Understanding the meaning of critical thinking in relation to academic requirements and clinical placement learning is essential for diagnostic radiography students if they are to succeed in both settings.

Alarms in the ICU: A study investigating how ICU nurses respond to clinical alarms for patient safety in a selected hospital in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa.

Background: Advances in technology have facilitated the implementation of improved alarm management systems in the healthcare sector. There is a need to identify challenges encountered by intensive care unit (ICU) nurses with clinical alarm management systems in South Africa (SA) to ensure utilisation of these technological resources for patient safety. Objectives: To investigate how intensive care nurses respond to clinical alarms for patient safety in a selected hospital in KwaZulu-Natal Province, SA. Methods: A descriptive, non-experimental research design using the census sampling strategy was used to invite 120 nurses from four ICUs to complete an adapted, structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Results: We had 91 respondents who completed the questionnaires (response rate of 75.8%). The majority of the respondents (85.7%) strongly knew the purpose of clinical alarms and 45.1% strongly felt confident about adjusting and monitoring the clinical alarms. More than half of the nurses (53.8 %) agreed to the existence of nuisance alarms that disrupted patient care (46.7%) and contributed to lack of responses (52.7%). While 76.9% strongly agreed with alarm sounds and displays to differentiate the priority of the alarms, 75.8% strongly agreed to the existence of proper documentation on setting alarms that are appropriate for each patient. The most frequent barriers were difficulty in setting alarms properly (51.6%) and lack of training on alarm systems (47.8%). Conclusion: The complexity in setting the alarms, limited training and existence of false alarms was evident. Alarm-specific training is required to keep intensive care nurses updated with changes in technology to ensure patient safety. Contributions of the study: The findings of this present study highlighted the importance of understanding the alarm management system within the ICU environment of the healthcare sector in SA. Technological improvements, specialised trainings and clear clinical policies for alarm management are essential to improve patient safety.

Problem based learning in radiography education: A narrative review.

OBJECTIVES: Radiography practice is fast developing with new imaging updates and challenging scenarios to deal with on a frequent basis. There is a need to equip students with the skill to be independent learners and develop critical thinking skills, so they can change their practice as the profession evolves. Problem Based Learning (PBL) has widely been adopted in medical and nursing training worldwide as a result of its desirable benefits. In order to ascertain the efficacy of the technique, this paper presents a review of the essential aspects of PBL, such as the theories, process, key roles and implication for radiography education and practice. KEY FINDINGS: The use of a defined model provides a useful structure to the PBL exercise with the addition of reflection, which is a pertinent inclusion within the process. The role of the facilitator in PBL is significant to students' learning as they help guide the students to the learning outcomes and provide support to the group; however, their skills development is an important factor to consider in PBL. CONCLUSION: This teaching approach has key benefits in radiography education and training in particular, its impact on preparing students for autonomous clinical practice. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The application of PBL in developing students' critical thinking and decision-making abilities support the narrowing of the spoon-feeding expectation of students and render it a useful pedagogical implementation within radiography programmes.