The Diagnostic Imaging Practice Education Special Interest Group is asking members of the SoR involved in education to join the group to ensure their voices are heard.
Angie White, senior lecturer at Brunel University of London, as well as a sonographer and previous practice educator, founded the Diagnostic Imaging Practice Education Special Interest Group (DIPE SIG) in November 2024. The group is co-facilitated with Mariesa Taylor-Allkins, lead practice educator for advancing practice at Greater Ormond Street Hospital for Children, and Ruth Newport, MRI radiographer at King's College Hospital.
The group serves as a platform for educators to impact national policy with a collaborative voice – of particular importance given the current lack of funding for educator posts.
Peer support
“When I started as an educator, I felt very overwhelmed and isolated,” Angie explained. “It was the support of my peers that I found was the most helpful thing. They helped me to learn how to progress myself, how to build my teaching.”
Angie was working at the London Imaging Academy, and with its support, applied to form a Special Interest Group within the SoR. The concept of the formation of the SIG was introduced at a planned Imaging Educator Study day, hosted by North Central London Imaging Academy – and got full approval to form the group to build a network of educators.
“There wasn’t really anything like that out there,” she explained.
The group held its first meeting following a survey of member interests and intentions sent out to prospective members, in January and saw 90 attendees join for a collaborative discussion and introductions. Subsequent meetings have featured a talk from Kerry Mills, a radiographer with over 25 years of experience in national healthcare leadership, and July’s meeting will host an expert session on how educators can make the most of the London Imaging Academy’s learning platforms, which are now in use across the country.
Now, more than 200 members have joined the SIG, from across the devolved nations.
'A collaborative community'
Quarterly meetings will enable members to hear from various speakers on topics of interest, with at least one dedicated to showcasing a digital tool, and breakout rooms for members to get to know each other and discuss answers to their shared dilemmas.
Angie continued: “It’s for anyone that’s involved in education, whether academia, clinical education, practice education, or even those who have an interest in education. We really want to build a collaborative community of educators while building future educators.”
At this year's UKIO conference, members of the SIG shared work at the Educator’s Lounge, with a talk from the facilitators about the SIG, as well as two of the SIG’s members discussing changes they implemented after they received poor results on the annual National Education and Training Survey (which gathers feedback from all undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare students, trainees, and apprentices), highlighting the positive results and turn-around.
She added: “It serves as a great platform to potentially impact national policy as well, because we have this big collaborative voice. Educators get left out of policy discussions, and the funding has all pretty much gone away from education posts, so that’s been really challenging for us all.”
Banding together will help educators to advocate for themselves, while also providing a venue for other collaborative activity- such as for research projects on radiography education, she added.
'We're missing a massive trick here'
Angie also emphasised that the lack of funded substantive roles for practice educators in diagnostic radiography was a significant issue.
She explained: “In nursing, education is completely supported. They have funded, substantive roles in nursing for practice educators, and you really don’t find that in imaging. We’re missing a massive trick here – there’s so much going on, without that support, the impact on the workforce will be immense. Who’s going to be teaching the new incoming students and supporting the development of those already in post?
“Don’t forget about us. Without that base to expand into other areas of training, it leads to burnout and loss of autonomy in jobs.”
The group’s next meeting will take place on 9 July from 12 to 1pm. They are currently recruiting facilitators to the group. Find out more information online here.
(Image: Mariesa Taylor-Allkins (L) and Angela White (R) presenting at UKIO)