Electronic monitoring of clinical experience during undergraduate training in diagnostic radiography.

The clinical experience of a student radiographer has traditionally been recorded in a paper log book. Accurate maintenance of the book relied upon the student's diligence. The electronic logbook is a method of accurately recording the clinical experience of the student radiographer by retrieval of information from the database of a hospital information or radiology management system. The system requires minimal software modification in order to incorporate fields defining the ability of the student in association with the degree of infirmity of the patient. Retrieved information is processed by a specially designed software package at the Academic Centre and reports issued to Clinical Tutors. Benefits of the system include easy monitoring of student workload, ensuring that the student receives a wide and varied experience during training; improvement in student motivation; and use of a final report form in the student's portfolio.