Abstract:

Background:
Health Professions Education (HPE) not only imparts healthcare knowledge and technical skills, but also fosters professional attitudes and ethical postures of mind, playing a vital role in enhancing healthcare service quality. A notable subgroup within HPs is the healthcare professionals technologists (HPTs), who integrate patient care with technology use, including medical imaging and diagnostic testing. This group includes Medical Laboratory Technologists, Radiologic Technologists, Nuclear Medicine Technologists, Therapeutic Radiographers, Diagnostic Medical Sonographers, Cardiovascular Technologists, Neurophysiopathologists, and Audiologists.

Aim:
The aim of this Integrative Review is to investigate the peculiar teaching and learning practices related to HPTs, with a specific focus on the connection between the development of technological skills and health humanities education. Attention will be paid to the teaching methods (already used or potentially used) able to turn HPTs into reflective practitioners.

Methods:
The methodological approach follows the Integrative Review design, according to Whittemore and Knafl’s model. We conducted the literature research across 4 different databases (i.e. PubMed, Eric, Web of Science and Scopus), for all records from January 01, 2000 to December 31, 2023. Search terms included the HPTs, combined with education practices (teaching AND learning practices), medical technology AND medical humanities. The limit of “peer reviewed papers” was applied, while there wasn’t any filter about language.

Results:
The review process initially screened 6,117 studies, with only 54 passing the initial title and abstract reading selection step, excluding duplicates and unrelated studies. Next, after a detailed full-text review, 30 studies were further excluded for various reasons (i.e. wrong population, wrong outcome, wrong background article), leaving 24 relevant studies. A significant finding was that the majority of these studies (83%, or 20 out of 24) were published after 2020, suggesting a strong impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on research efforts related to the training and education of HPTs. The included studies shared common themes, such as the endorsement of simulation-based education, self-regulated learning, and the use of self-assessment tools for reflective practice among HPTs. From the analysis of the articles emerges the necessity for ongoing support and training of HPT educators in both technological and humanistic/ethical skills to improve student and patient care outcomes. Another key focus was the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with findings suggesting AI's potential to significantly improve diagnostic accuracy and efficiency, aiding HPTs in their technological tasks. Additionally, some studies highlighted a positive correlation between AI technologies and compassion in healthcare, suggesting AI as a tool for enhancing empathetic awareness, communication and interprofessional collaboration.

Conclusions:
In conclusion, this Integrative Review indicates the necessity of integrating technological prowess and humanistic values. It highlights the need for adaptive teaching methodologies including the increasing role of AI in enhancing HPTs education. Our direction for future research is to develop new structured recommendation and updated good-practices in education for HPTs, with particular attention to the ethical competences.

Keywords:

Health Professions Education, Healthcare Professionals Technologists, AI technologies, Teaching methods, Ethical competences.