Improving podiatry students’ clinical reasoning when requesting x-rays: An interdisciplinary approach using multimedia tools

摘要

Objectivesudud - Under Medicare, podiatrists are able to request funded plain x-ray images of the foot and ankle. Within undergraduate podiatry education, students should be made aware of the potential risks associated with the use of ionising radiation, and the importance of adhering to the ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) principle. udud - The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of using a clinical case study format to improve podiatry students’ clinical reasoning skills when requesting x-rays. It is envisaged that enhanced clinical judgement of graduates will lead to more appropriate utilisation of diagnostic imaging requests by podiatrists. ududMethodsudud - An interactive multimedia story was developed by a Medical Imaging lecturer to highlight the appropriate clinical pathways that students should consider when assessing a patient. The willing third year podiatry students were randomly divided into a test (n=20) and control group (n=20). The test group were given access to the branching story tutorial supplementary to the resources available to the control group. A formative quiz was released to both groups to quantitatively determine whether the student understanding in the test group was enhanced. A qualitative survey was also distributed. ududResultsudud - The results demonstrate that the group with access to the tutorials performed better on the formative quiz than the control group. All qualitative responses regarding the interactive tutorial were positive.ududConclusionudud - Both quantitative and qualitative evidence indicates that students demonstrated improved clinical judgement when determining the most appropriate diagnostic imaging requests. This teaching method should be continued in the future.