Radiography students' viewpoints of the clinical learning environment: A cross-sectional study

The quality of clinical learning environments (CLEs) impact learners' experience and competence development. Objective instruments have been developed to evaluate CLEs from the perspective of medical and nursing students. No such instruments have been used in Radiography. Radiography students' perspectives of CLEs were investigated using the validated Undergraduate Clinical Education Environment Measure (UCEEM). Undergraduate (UG) (n = 365) and graduate entry (GE) radiography students (n = 45) from an Irish university were invited to participate. CLEs consisted of 25 public and 10 private hospitals. The UCEEM contains 25 items under two overarching dimensions, experiential learning and social participation, with four subscales: opportunities to learn in and through work and quality of supervision; preparedness for student entry; workplace interaction patterns and student inclusion; and equal treatment. Two hundred and fifteen students participated (response rate 52.4%; n = 185 UG, n = 30 GE), most of whom were based in public hospitals (87.4%). The mean UCEEM score was 107.5 ± 17.7 (optimal range: 90–125). Experiential learning and social participation were scored 74.2 ± 12.5 (optimal range: 60–85) and 33.37 ± 6.29 (optimal range: 30–40), respectively. Private hospitals ranked slightly higher than public hospitals for ‘opportunities to learn in and through work and quality of supervision’ (p = 0.018). Items ranked highest related to ‘equal treatment’ and ‘opportunity to put theory into practice’. Clinical supervision-related items were scored highest by first-year students. High UCEEM scores indicate radiography students' positive perceptions of their CLEs, particularly regarding equality and experiential learning. Findings support the expansion of radiography placement to include public and private hospitals. The UCEEM is a theoretically robust, validated tool which appears suitable for evaluating radiography CLEs. This study provides valuable baseline data for comparison of Radiography CLEs.