FORCE – Framework for Online Radiographer Clinical Education

Research period: 01.05.2021 - 30.04.2023

The FORCE project is to build a virtual web-based learning resource were Radiography undergraduates across Europe can engage in the interactive & problem-based development of radiographic knowledge, ability and professional awareness. The resource will encompass accurate clinical simulation of different themes within the patient imaging pathway, from admission for imaging or therapy through to progression to the next stage of care. The inclusion of different themes in the one resource will enable students to integrate their learning in a holistic way for each patient. Within the resource, students will be able to engage interactively with selected components of the patient pathway, developing knowledge and skills and achieving learning outcomes as they progress through their decisions about the patient. Consequent to this experience, the resource will establish a shared forum for the enhancement of clinical and professional skills in all our students, achieving not only enhancement of clinical competence but also provoking appreciation of similarities and variations in the professional responsibilities of the Radiographer between different countries. It serves here as a completion of mobilities in the ERASMUS Radiography Group and the respective modules, which are offered to students and teachers at the respective partner institutions. The European Federation of Radiographers Societies (EFRS) is involved in all phases of the project.

• The FORCE project will deliver an online resource that will enable students from all partner institutions and beyond to engage with problem-based learning and clinical simulation which will also be developed to encourage the same pan-European consideration of the patient journey through diagnostic imaging and radiotherapy. The resource will be available irrespective of the capacity to travel, whether that capacity is constrained by influences such as the prevailing pandemic, or by the socio-economic status of a particular student or student group.
• The aim is to set up a teaching and learning platform for students of the bachelor's degree programmes in radiology technology of the ERASMUS partner institutions for use in connection with student and teacher mobility and to integrate it into the respective existing exchange modules. Different fictitious examination settings and scenarios will be prepared and made available in a virtual environment. Students will accompany virtual patients along the entire path of radiological imaging (from anamnesis, via imaging using virtual simulation, to the interpretation of radiological image data) via video simulations or interactive problem-based-learning.
• The project supports the vision of "self-directed and lifelong learning" of the Campus 2025 strategy and consolidates the already long-standing successful cooperation within the ERASMUS Radiography Group, of which the Radiological Technology programme has been a member since 2009.

• FH Campus Wien (AT)
• UCD School of Medicine (IRL) (Project Coordination)
• Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (NOR)
• University of Malta (MLT)
• P.PORTO School of Health (PRT)
• University Suffolk (GBR)
• Tampere University of Applied Sciences (FIN)
• Turku University of Applied Sciences (FIN)