Abstract:

There have been many drivers to encourage the involvement of service users/patients in healthcare education (Lathlean et al 2006). The medical profession promotes the use of patients as ‘teachers’ to share their experiences and knowledge as ‘expert patients’ (Donaghy et al 2010). They can also challenge pre-conceived ideas and attitudes (Katan and Prager 1986, in Lathlean et al 2006). There is evidence that involvement of service users in healthcare education is being widely embraced (Morgan and Jones 2009) but very little is written regarding involvement in radiography education (Hill et al 2014) or the involvement of children and young people.

The sight of a child in the x-ray department can cause fear and anxiety to radiographers (Harvey-Lloyd 2013). This could be due to the fact that many radiographers work in hospitals that are predominantly adult environments and may have very little experience and training related to working with children (Mathers et al 2011). Student radiographers have cited paediatric radiography as an area that is a ‘challenge’; makes them ‘nervous’ and ‘apprehensive’; worried about ‘compliance’ (Crohn and Ellwood 2014). Historically, final year students have only received a 2-hour ‘Paediatric Radiography’ lecture.

In order to address this, paediatric radiography workshops were developed for final year BSc (Hons) Radiography students. Pre-reading resources were developed to facilitate learning and covered: key principles of paediatric radiography; child development; children and pain; working with children/young people and their parents/carers. It was expected that students would use this learning to inform the activities of two workshops.

These workshops were designed and delivered by two radiography lecturers and their children – a 9-year old son and a 12-year old daughter. The two young people designed and facilitated their individual workshop. They provided an insight to their hobbies, interests and experiences in healthcare, while also challenging any misconceptions and pre-conceived ideas that the students might have had about their gender and age-group. Scenarios were created for students to consider, such as ‘How to explain a MRI head scan to a 9-year old’ and ‘How to prepare a 12-year old girl for a CT scan of her abdomen’. The students were able to work with the young people to test out their ideas and get instant feedback and advice.

The workshops were evaluated with feedback from the students and the young people involved. The students appreciated the opportunity to interact with the two young people and felt that they benefitted from being able to test their knowledge with them, and ‘gained more through this workshop than if it was just taught’. The young people who delivered the workshops really enjoyed the experiences as they felt that they had something useful to contribute and the students seemed to listen and respect what they had to say.

Keywords:

Radiography education, children and young people, service user involvement.