ISRRT_COVID-19_book

they were given appreciation gift packs and thank you notes 1 . Strong social support was
evident throughout the duration of their placement.
The importance of every radiography educator in nurturing the next generation of
radiographers is undeniable. Clinical educators play a crucial role in boosting students’
engagement in clinical education affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the incoming
generation Z students, considerations must be made to meet their needs. As independent
active problem solvers, generation Z students are technologically integrated, but they have
an increased risk of suffering from psychological distress 2 . Therefore, mental well-being of
the students was a concern for the clinical educators throughout the placement duration.
Furthermore, educators had to constantly create learning opportunities for students who had
suffered loss of practicum due to the various restrictions 3 . This was a herculean task for the
clinical educators who were already overwhelmed by the rising cases of transmission in the
community. They must now educate students while working with minimum manpower and
ensuring quick turnaround of the medical imaging services.
While it may be expected for faculty in the IHL to be able to easily embrace the digital learning,
clinical educators often struggle with such a paradigm shift in delivering education. Many
were not prepared to deliver online teaching and learning and scrambled to come to grips
with the practicalities of teleconference tutorials. This is a timely reminder to all clinical
educators to start gaining more exposure to online teaching so that they can be more
comfortable with their individual virtual teaching skillset when called upon. As if struggling
with digital learning was not enough, clinical educators also had to grapple with teacher’s
ethical dilemma – ‘failing to fail’ students. The fallout from failing to fail is too great as it can
be a patient safety risk when we fail to fail 4 . However, failing a student is sensitive and
constantly leads to ethical distress in the clinical educators.
Clinical educators often emphasise on enduring relationships and social networks with the
students and to fail a student can be challenging 5 . Nonetheless, authenticity and validity of
the assessment can only be maintained through an objective evaluation of the student’s
performance. Using evidence-based best practices to guide clinical educators’ teaching and
evaluation would empower and increase their confidence in assessing their students’
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