Interprofessional collaboration between medical imaging academics and linguists in developing communication skills.

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND: Effective communication is critical in all healthcare professions, including medical imaging. This is demonstrated across the professional capability requirements outlined by regulatory bodies that represent medical radiation practitioners around the world. Thus, it is imperative that university curricula provide students with opportunities to develop their communication skills to ensure graduates are prepared to deliver high-quality person-centred care (PCC). The aim of this educational perspective paper is to discuss an interprofessional collaboration between academics from medical imaging and a linguist from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences' health communication unit to develop and deliver a pre-clinical communication skills program for undergraduate medical imaging students at Monash University. This innovative program aims to address the unique communication challenges encountered during medical imaging examinations. DISCUSSION: Medical imaging programs tend to use a combination of lectures, role-play and structured workshops to teach communication skills to undergraduate students. These are normally run by medical imaging academics who have significant clinical experience as well as tacit intuitive understanding of communication challenges. This intuitive knowledge can be challenging to articulate to novice learners. In comparison, a linguist is an expert in the use and form of language in context, and can collaborate with medical imaging academics to support students in developing their understanding of communication as a tool for use in caring and compassionate practice as part of a PCC approach. This paper highlights an interprofessional collaboration between medical imaging academics and a linguist to develop and deliver an integrated communication skills program at Monash University, bringing together the expertise of both fields to support medical imaging students in effectively communicating with patients in the clinical context. CONCLUSION: The interprofessional collaboration between medical imaging academics and a linguist at Monash University shows early promise. Our collaborative pre-clinical communication skills curriculum development and delivery pioneers an innovative method within the medical imaging curriculum which integrates best practice from both medical imaging and linguistic fields.

Experiences of embedding gender and sexuality diversity workshops in an undergraduate medical imaging curriculum.

This commentary describes some of the reported challenges of health participation for the gender- and sexuality-diverse (GSD) population, particularly related to medical imaging practice. The approach and student feedback of an undergraduate education initiative to support students in the delivery of culturally competent care are described. The experiences of delivery over a three-year period are reported, including the 2020 online delivery due to COVID-19 precautions. Student feedback demonstrates positive outcomes from the workshops and activities.

Analysis of the effects of the combination of PBL and multimedia network teaching model in the preclinical course of image diagnostics / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective To investigate the effect of the courses of image diagnostics on clinical pro-bation period via the combination of PBL and multimedia network teaching model. Methods 126 under-graduates from the department of medical image (Grade 2011 and 2012) were selected as teaching subjects, and PBL combined with multimedia network teaching was adopted in the teaching of the course of medical imaging diagnosis. After class we implemented a questionnaire survey, and let the students write learning experience. Statistical analysis was conducted by using SSPS 13.0 to reflect the teaching participation in the students' questionnaire and a. summary analysis of the learning experience of the students was also made. Results 123 valid questionnaires were collected. 94.31%(116 people) of students were active participants in these courses, 90.25%(111 people) of the students thought they could actively communicate in teaching, and 43% (110 people) of the students thought they got fully prepared before class. 123 articles in accor-dance with the requirements of experience were received; most students took positive attitude to the active influence the teaching methods had brought; some student pointed out that the teaching method had the disadvantages such as too much time to prepare, too much information, and so on. Conclusions The com-bination of PBL and multimedia network teaching has preliminary results. It is a novel model that is available for teaching image diagnostics on clinical probation period.