WP3 - Competencies Developed in Education Institutions.

The current EU education programme is not addressing the EU market since it mostly caters for national needs and regulations. In consideration of this, the study aims to evaluate the competencies of the radiographers at an EU level, by assessing the situation of a wide range of member-states (at least 75% must be included). The movement of radiographers in EU occurs under the 2005/36/EC directive, however, other EEA countries can achieve recognition of their qualifications and for that reason they will also be included in the study. EU applicant countries will also be included in the study in view of the possibility of these countries becoming EU members by the end of this project.

This assessment will be focused on competencies of the radiographers practising the most common task performed by these professionals which is the administration of RT to patients using a Linear Accelerator in order to better isolate these competencies from other aspects of TRs’ education that were studied in previous research.

The main tool is a survey that will be distributed to EU education institutions (heads of departments). This will aim to identify differences and similarities between countries in terms of programmes' structures and between the competencies developed.

The questionnaire will also allow identification of the factors that influence the level of development of the competencies.

The results of this work package will be distributed to all stakeholders and regulatory bodies across the EU. This will raise awareness of current issues relevant to the profession and present the recommendations in regards to the competencies found necessary for the radiographers.

Lead organisation

University of Malta – UoM

Participating organisations

Ulster University – UU (UK)
European Federation of Radiographer Societies – EFRS (EU)
Associação Portuguesa dos Radioterapeutas – ART (PT)
Towarzystwo Naukowe Technikow Medycznych Radioterapii - TNTMR (PL)

Outputs

A report will be published identifying the following:An extensive list of competencies identified in the literature practised by the linear accelerator radiographer.List of themes identified from the literature.

The results of the survey to European Education institutions in regards to the competencies developed in their programmes are going to be published in a peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal.

All publications or links will be available on the consortium’s website, LinkedIn, Facebook page and consortiums' Twitter.

Outcome

Disseminating the results to the scientific community through the mentioned reports and peer-reviewed publications.

Oral presentation of the results of the research on the European educational programmes and the differences regarding the competencies developed.The results of the research will be disseminated through presentations at international conferences. A presentation of preliminary results may be done at national level.

The competencies identified as underdeveloped by European educational institutions will be identified in this report.The curriculum for a webinars tackling these issue will be published. It will then be fed into WP10 where the underdeveloped competencies will be explored in a webinar series

Webinar lecture plan on underdeveloped skills of the linear accelerator TR

Oral presentations can reach less people than written publications but tend to be more effective in the spreading of results.The presentation of this work will be promoted on the website, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to reach a wider audience.