ISRRT_COVID-19_book

The enabling factors which led to the proposal and the inspirational moment
The first factor concerns BSc student radiographer learning. In 2009 the University of Salford
(UoS), my employer, established a new x-ray laboratory to teach students practical
radiography skills. The laboratory included two digital radiography x-ray rooms, a CT scanner
and various ancillary equipment. However, within a short space of time, it was clear the
laboratory was not being used to anything like its full capacity and this, combined with a lack
of clinical places for our students, resulted a novel learning method being implemented and
evaluated within the laboratory – ‘Research informed Teaching experience (RiTe) 1-13 . RiTe was
created and evaluated by Dr Leslie Robinson, Dr Rob Higgins and me and it involved teams of
student radiographers working together over an intensive week to design, conduct and write
up an experiment which had direct relevance to radiography imaging practice. RiTe became
a formal component of years 1 and 2 or our BSc (Hons) radiography programme.
The second factor concerns my involvement with the European Federation of Radiographer
Societies (EFRS). Around 2013 I ceased involvement with nuclear medicine and the European
Association of Nuclear Medicine and its conferences, and from thereon in my career I focused
completely on diagnostic radiography research. Consequently, the European Congress of
Radiology became my main conference in which I presented research. This change brought
me into very close contact with the EFRS. I became fully aware of EFRS’ extensive and highly
prolific clinical/academic researchers and journal authors and I started to work alongside
many of them on various research and professional activities.
The final factor involves me meeting Dimitris Katsifarakis, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Support Services of the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technologists
(ISRRT), at my university. On September 27 th 2019, Dimitris came to see me at my university.
I showed him the radiography-related teaching and research facilities and we discussed the
ISRRT eLearning platform. Dimitris was keen that I developed materials for the ISRRT
platform. However, at that time and for the foreseeable future I knew that would be
impossible due my professional and work commitments – I had no spare time.
COVID-19 results in RiTe going online
By late March 2020 the UK was locked down and working at home had been implemented.
My university required its academics to move all teaching online and as part of this I offered
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