An Evaluation of Service Users as an Educational Resource in an Undergraduate Diagnostic Radiography Module.

Aim: To critically evaluate the PAM2012 “Pathology for Radiographers” module and its “service user session” where around three or four invited SU&Cs living with chronic health conditions discuss their healthcare experiences with small groups of stage 2 students. Methods: Brookfield’s “four lenses of critical reflection” were adopted in order to gain a balanced perspective of key stakeholders, including the students involved (i.e. the “student lens”); medical imaging staff and adopted SU&Cs (the “colleague lens”); and the autobiographical thoughts of the author (the “autobiographical lens”). Evaluation was strengthened by putting these perspectives in context with the literature base (i.e. the “theoretical lens”) [2]. For the “student lens” 12 of 37 (32.4%) students returned an online questionnaire. Four staff and two SU&Cs were also surveyed on their views. Themes such as the benefits, praise, criticisms, barriers and potential improvements for the sessions were identified and explored, along with potential new ways of implementing service users as part of the MI programme.