Radiologic Technology最新文献

Purpose: To compare the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR)-based continuing medical education (CME) with traditional lecture-based methods in enhancing radiation safety knowledge among health care professionals.

Methods: Thirty-six health care professionals, including scrub nurses, cardiologists, and orthopedic surgeons, completed VR-based (RadSafe VR; Virtual Medical Coaching) and traditional training. Evaluations taken before and after training assessed knowledge retention, learner satisfaction, and radiation safety practices. Occupational eye dose radiation exposure also was monitored for 40 weeks using dosimeters.

Results: VR training improved knowledge retention by 30% at 3 months after training compared with traditional methods. Eye dose exposure decreased by 25%, indicating the intervention effectively reduced occupational radiation risks. In addition, 85% of participants preferred VR training because of its interactive and immersive features.

Discussion: VR training demonstrated superior efficacy in reducing radiation exposure while fostering behavioral adherence to safety protocols. This aligns with prior studies that emphasize VR's ability to address the limitations of traditional methods of CME such as limited engagement and practical application. The sustained reductions in radiation exposure observed in this study suggest VR has the potential to promote long-term improvements in safety culture among health care professionals.

Conclusion: VR-based CME improved radiation safety knowledge retention and significantly reduced radiation exposure. Its integration into training programs offers a cost-effective and successful approach to advancing safety protocols in clinical practice. Further research is warranted to confirm these outcomes.

Purpose: To encourage health profession students to reflect on and share an important aspect of their educational experience and analyze students' responses for common themes.

Methods: This qualitative exploratory interprofessional education project used photovoice methodology. Images and reflections were collected from 13 radiation therapy students and 44 physical therapy students exploring the most important aspect of their educational experience. The students were responsible for submitting an original photograph and a written reflection in response to a prompt and explaining why they chose that photograph. Photographs and reflections were collected and analyzed by all researchers, and themes were identified.

Results: The themes of stress and feeling overwhelmed were identified by all researchers, which sparked further examination into academic burnout. Subsequent themes, which correlated with the theme of academic burnout, were coping strategies and gratefulness.

Discussion: Reports of mental illness, depression, and anxiety among college students are increasing. Increased awareness and requests for faculty support require educators to ensure students also are mentally prepared for graduation and entry-level practice. Implementing this low-stress interprofessional education project provided faculty with the opportunity to observe their students' worlds more deeply and gain a greater respect for their struggles and perseverance.

Conclusion: Self-reflection projects, such as the one described in this study, allow health profession students to explore and share key feelings, experiences, and insights. Exercises like this help reduce stress, isolation, and academic burnout among students and provide educators with insights into their students' lives.

Purpose: To determine whether radiologic science educators are experiencing burnout and to what perceived degree, and to identify the perceived factors most linked to their burnout.

Methods: The Maslach Burnout Toolkit for Educators was used to assess burnout in radiologic science educators according to 3 domains: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal achievement. Convenience sampling included participants from several radiologic science disciplines, including sonography, radiation therapy, radiography, nuclear medicine technology, and cardiac interventional radiography. A mean item score was calculated for each domain, and item scores in each domain were totaled to obtain a sum score. Results from the survey were compared with national educator norms for burnout.

Results: Out of 360 participants, 265 (73.6%) completed the survey. A mean item score of 4.16 was calculated for the first domain, emotional exhaustion, with a sum score of 37.41, indicating a high level of burnout related to emotional exhaustion. Participants demonstrated a moderately high level of burnout associated with depersonalization, with a sum score of 12.09. In contrast, participants indicated a high level of personal accomplishment, with a sum score of 43.60, which corresponds to low levels of burnout.

Discussion: Radiologic science educators indicated an overall higher perceived level of burnout when compared with national educator norms. Radiologic science educators exhibited higher levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. The increased level of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization might be due to clinical education requirements, clinical supervision, and rigor of course material. Based on the study data, there is moderate alignment in the areas of workload, control, reward, community, and values. However, there is a strong mismatch in the area of fairness. Based on data analysis, fairness might be linked to increased levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization in burnout.

Conclusion: The increased workload and work-life imbalance experienced by radiologic science educators might be related partially to technological invasion. The increasing use of technology and connectivity experienced by faculty has resulted in an increasing level of personal invasion by work responsibilities. Common results of increased technological invasion include perception of overload, work-home imbalance, reduced job satisfaction, decreased motivation, and decreased productivity. This invasion also has been shown to cause symptoms of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal achievement, the 3 aspects of burnout.