ISRRT_COVID-19_book

service. To make matters worse, our students were all withdrawn from placement and within
a week we resorted to weekly tutorials with groups of students to keep them “warm” and
engaged. Suddenly we had to work out a plan on how we could provide clinical education via
a digital/e-learning format. As a team we decided to group each clinical placement with a
lecturer to provide online “clinical tutorials” and online assessments to prevent the students
becoming disengaged and ensure the students were equipped with the skills and knowledge
for when they were able to return to their clinical departments. We soon had to use strategies
to maintain engagement and the consolidation of knowledge within a non-clinical
environment. Therefore, the teaching staff entered the clinical departments to record videos
of positioning, role play (scenarios) and virtual image evaluation sessions. Student evaluations
took place, and we were soon reminded to ensure that sessions were innovated and
interesting to keep them engaged. Evaluations revealed that the students felt appreciated
and that they were grateful of our quick response to this unprecedented moment.
But it was a seminal moment for not just educators like me but also clinical radiographers on
the front line! Radiographers within the National Health Service (NHS) were already aware of
the current workforce challenges i.e., huge demand for diagnostics particularly in the
specialist modalities such as CT and Ultrasound imaging and MRI imaging 1 . This has caused us
to move to a completely different way of working such as the push to working extended days
and 7 day working for non-acute imaging. The U.K. already have a huge workforce shortage
with experienced radiographers moving into leadership roles and advanced practice roles
creating a reduced number of patient facing radiographers. As an educator I know full well
the pressure that is placed on universities to increase the output of radiographers to reduce
this gap. We know there are many departments operating with significantly outdated
equipment 1 , with reduced efficiency which subsequently increases the time to image
patients compared to modern state of the art equipment. This can cause further stress to
both staff and patients i.e., increased waiting times, and demands for radiographers to work
longer hours. This is a significant area that needs to be addressed within our healthcare
service.
Lots of scoping exercises have been performed to assess what support is available to the
current workforce and the resilience that exists amongst the radiography profession, but little
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