New software identifies extra placement capacity for students

Health Education England (HEE) South East Region has enabled stakeholder engagement across the region to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the current and projected workforce challenges across the radiography professions.

The medical imaging team at specialist health sciences higher education provider AECC University College and HEE are pleased to announce the launch of a software tool that aims to identify additional placement capacity for student radiographers in medical imaging departments across the south east of England.

Developed in-house at AECC University College, the software enables medical imaging departments to input the equipment they have on site, log when it is being used and confirm whether there is spare capacity for the machines to be used for training.

In this way, the software aims to identify where and when placement opportunities might be possible for students. This information can then be matched against university requirements for placements in departments that might not have been considered previously.

The software enables departments to compare their capacity and report it consistently for healthcare systems, creating a system-wide approach for recording, monitoring and addressing capacity.

Matthew Southam, clinical imaging lead at AECC University College and allied health professional workforce fellow for radiography at HEE, says: “It became clear from discussions with stakeholders that it’s hard to quantify what the capacity of trusts and departments are for learners because they are all slightly different. This placement capacity tool aims to standardise the way we capture that information.

“We hope to use this information to adapt the placement element of courses to use available capacity, potentially increasing the number of students we can accommodate for placements.”

Maria Mitchell, HEE South East allied health professions workforce lead,  adds: “This software is part of a wider radiography workforce programme that aims to support the workforce challenges that radiography is experiencing across the south east.”

She continues: “It focuses on building and strengthening the leadership and influence, supporting the growth of the workforce and enabling transformation and new ways of working.

“This has been a collaborative approach involving stakeholders across the providers and local universities. The Radiographer Learner Capacity software aims to reduce the disparities across the region in how learner placement capacity is calculated and to enable a joined-up way of working.”