Radiography mindlines: Professional knowledge sharing in radiography

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Radiography mindlines: An ethnographic study of professional knowledge sharing in a diagnostic radiography clinical learning environment.

• IRAS ID

  329252

• Contact name

  Kirsty Patel

• Contact email

  kirsty.patel@mail.bcu.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Birmingham City University

• Duration of Study in the UK

  2 years, 0 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  Diagnostic radiography (DR) is crucial to many diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation pathways. The profession is reliant on higher education institutions (HEIs) providing effective undergraduate (Ug) DR courses to supply the workforce with radiographers who are autonomous, critical thinkers, with the ability to provide quality evidence-based practice (EBP). UgDR education heavily relies on radiography departments acting as clinical learning environments (CLEs) for students to work and learn in for around 50% of their studies (McNulty, England and Shanahan, 2021).
  Learning in the CLE is facilitated by radiographers, some have specific educational roles, but most act in a purely clinical capacity. Students are often encouraged to apply theory to practice to develop and promote EBP, a concept often referred to as bridging the ‘theory-practice gap’ (Higgins et al., 2017). However, the pressures that face the DR profession are numerous and fundamentally compounded by an ongoing workforce crisis (CoR, 2020; RCR, 2021). This presents a challenge in UgDR education, as capacity to train radiographers must increase if the workforce crisis is to be abated, yet, effective DR education is heavily reliant on the learning enabled by radiographers in the CLE.

  The C.I is a qualified diagnostic radiographer with 10 years clinical experience in the NHS, they are HCPC registered and currently on a graduate researcher contract at the sponsoring higher education institution. The C.I will carry out an ethnographic study to provide new insights into how knowledge is created, updated, and shared between UgDR students and clinical staff in an NHS DR CLE. The outcomes of the research will aid in understanding knowledge-sharing processes in this setting and may be transferable to other CLEs in both DR and other healthcare professions.

• REC name

  East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  23/EM/0170

• Date of REC Opinion

  4 Sep 2023

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion