Students, educators, supervising practitioners and ultimately patients all suffer. The Department of Radiography at Birmingham City University receives much praise for its links with practice partners.
We involve practice in all aspects of our programme from interviewing prospective students to participating in teaching sessions at university and being a key member of any redesign/change project affecting radiography students. We hold quarterly Clinical Placement Liaison Group (CPLG) meetings where management and 'shop floor' representatives from all our practice partners are invited to the university to meet with the programme team and discuss the programme, any problems or issues and share good practice.
We regularly have up to 40 radiographers around the table solving problems and sharing ideas collaboratively. CPLG representatives review clinical assessment documentation annually ensuring that both the process and assessment criteria remain achievable in current clinical practice.
In addition, each of our placement sites has an identified tutor who is both an academic/clinical link and personal tutor to the students at the placement site. Tutors visit placement sites fortnightly to meet with students, management and radiographers of all grades.
This has helped us to develop really close links with all our clinical sites – university tutors know supervising practitioners personally meaning that any issues can be resolved more easily and that good practice can be shared quickly and effectively. It is hard work and time-consuming to provide this level of support but the head of BCU Department of Radiography and all academic staff see clinical links as a priority and are determined to maintain the level of support offered.
All radiography programmes at the university were recently re-designed. Clinical partners were involved at every stage of the process. In addition to our usual quarterly meeting we held multiple events to ensure that the redesign process was a true partnership. This was recognised and acknowledged at all the re-approval events. As a result of this close partnership, students and clinical supervisors feel supported and empowered through the placement elements of our programmes.