Analysis of Spanish vocational radiographers' education through clinical training and perceptions of core subject teachers: A survey.

INTRODUCTION: This work presents a prospective analysis of the key aspects involved in the Spanish radiographer's perception of the weaknesses of the current educational curriculum in terms of teaching staff's qualifications and composition in the clinical training and core subjects. The goal is to show clinical training and professional's perception of the teaching quality and to characterise the weakness detected within the context of the European radiographer's academic system. METHODS: The perception of the quality of the training received by the professionals was collected through an anonymous survey. A total of 758 valid responses were received, and were analysed to three hypotheses: the variability of the teachers' qualifications in the core subjects, the variability in terms of internships time carried out by the students, and assessment about teaching quality of the teachers. RESULTS: The results prove there is a huge variability and little academic affinity of the teachers' degrees with the core subjects. On the other hand, the results shows there is a scarcity of clinical training hours in Spain, especially compared to European standards. It was demonstrated that teachers with a specific radiographer degree obtained the best scores. CONCLUSION: It is mandatory to adjust the criteria for selecting clinical imaging teachers to improve the teaching quality in Spain and increase the clinical training period of the Spanish radiographers to match their European counterparts. IMPLICATION FOR PRACTICE: Improving the training of Spanish radiographers will contribute to standardising the training quality of the whole European profession.

Spanish radiographers' concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: The current outbreak of COVID-19 has caused worldwide healthcare and social emergency in which healthcare professionals were under extreme work conditions while being fearful of becoming infected or spreading the disease to their relatives. The perceived threat of COVID-19 has the potential to cause severe psychological maladjustment. The aim of the study is to explore Spanish radiographers' concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This study was quantitative, observational and cross-sectional. The sample was made up of 546 radiographers working in Spain during the outbreak. The instrument used for analysis was an ad hoc questionnaire with socio-demographic questions and the questionnaire on perception of threat from COVID-19 validate to spanish healthcare professionals. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 70.1% of female, 29.7% of male and 0.2% undeclare sex participants. The results showed a high level of a perceived threat from COVID-19 (7.57 ± 0.088), furthermore we observed a high level of threat about the possibility of infecting family members (8.49 ± 0.25), patients (8.33 ± 0.086), and coworkers (8.35 ± 0.084). Furthermore, females have a higher level of a perception of threat to spread infection between patients (r = -0.136; p = 0.001) and coworkers (r = -0.118; p = 0.006), than males. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 pandemic is perceived as a serious threat, being especially concerned about the threat of spreading the infection to family, coworkers, and patients. The perception of risk depends partly on professionals' gender and family responsibilities. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Our findings suggest that it is recommended that healthcare professionals receive formation to reinforce and improve their emotional competencies for coping successfully with potentially stressful situations like COVI19 pandemic.