ePortfolios: Enhancing confidence in student radiographers' communication of radiographic anatomy and pathology. A cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: In 2020, the Medical Radiation Practice Board of Australia made several revisions to its professional capabilities. To address this, medical radiation practitioners, including diagnostic radiographers, are required to escalate urgent findings in all radiographic settings. However, the confidence of radiographers in articulating descriptions of radiographic findings varies despite this requirement. This cross-sectional study explores how the implementation of eportfolio affects student self-perceived confidence in identifying and describing radiographic findings in both an academic and a clinical setting. METHODS: A Qualtrics survey was distributed to second-year radiography students who had used eportfolios. The survey comprised of four questions using a Likert-scale and one open-ended question. Quantitative data were analysed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and qualitative data was thematically assessed. RESULTS: Overall, 55 of 65 radiographic students (85%) completed the survey. Confidence (strongly agree and agree) decreased from 89% to 74% between academic and clinical environments when identifying abnormalities, and 89% to 73% when describing findings. This finding highlights the challenges students face when in the clinical environment. Wilcoxon signed rank test analysed a statistically significant relation between the two environments (P < 0.05). However, the relationship between identifying and describing skills was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Following a review of the qualitative data, three recurring themes were identified among responses. CONCLUSION: ePortfolios assist in improving confidence in identification and description of radiographic abnormalities, particularly in an academic setting. The clinical environment presents unique challenges which may limit student clinical performance; however, this requires further investigation.

See something, say something: the coroner's perspective.

The communicating safely policy, publicised by the catchphrase See Something, Say Something was released by the Medical Radiation Practice Board of Australia in 2019. It was developed to support medical radiation practitioners (MRPs) upholding the obligation to communicate urgent or unexpected findings in a timely manner, when identified on medical images. Prior to this policy being part of the professional capabilities, several untimely deaths occurred-the majority of whose causal factors could have been mitigated if imaging findings were urgently communicated by MRPs. This commentary summarises three coronial inquests that involved MRPs, discusses how these coronial findings are reflected in the communicating safely policy and provides some recommendations for the profession to ensure this policy is enacted in clinical practice.