Background The cost of university presents various challenges with regards to students’ daily learning activities. This is particularly evident in developing countries, where higher education students face acute financial problems that greatly affect their daily educational activities. In Ethiopia, public university students do benefit from governmental cost-sharing programs. Moreover, health sciences students have additional costs during their clinical placements that are above the common expenses for university students. Objectives Authors aim to explore the challenges that undergraduate health sciences students in their clinical year face with limited pocket money, as well as how students perceive these limited funds affecting their learning activities and their ability to meet challenges. Methods This descriptive qualitative study was conducted at the Department of Medical Radiologic Technology, College of Health Sciences, at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. Interviews were conducted between January 28, 2019 and February 1, 2019 with twelve students; and only ten participants were included in the study. The semi-structured questions explored participants’ experiences and perceptions regarding the challenges of a lack of pocket money and its impacts on their learning activities. Their reaction to financial challenges was assessed. Results Four themes that are related to the impact of a lack of money on learning activities emerged from our interviews. First, students believed that their difficulty in obtaining pocket money from family or other funding sources contributed to their financial stress, which negatively impacted their learning. Moreover, their difficulty in affording the basic needs for a student greatly affected their learning abilities in the classroom as well as in their clinical placements. The ability to self-manage was also a significant concern for students, with the pressure to use self-control and proper money management adding to their financial stress. Lastly, students observed that the lack of pocket money affected their ability to make social connections at university, which they saw as negatively impacting their learning abilities. Conclusion Ethiopian undergraduate health sciences students faced many challenges due to the lack of pocket money and these challenges affected student learning both directly or indirectly. Based on our data, we believe that the underlying causes of student financial hardship can be addressed by increasing public awareness of university expenses, clarifying the cost-sharing system to the public, redesigning the cost-sharing policy, and improving university services. Additionally, teaching students self-management skills is also another area that could increase student success.
Background: Clinical placements are of paramount importance to medical radiology technology students, as it allows them to acquire the necessary skills to be successful technologists. The main objective of this study was to assess the challenges faced by students, instructors, and technologists during the clinical placements of radiology technology students at four College of Health Sciences-affiliated hospitals. Method: A qualitative approach using focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews was used to explore the challenges experienced by students, instructors, and technologists during the clinical placements of medical radiology technology students from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Twenty-two radiology technology students in the Department of Radiography took part in the study from an available pool of 73 students. In addition, seven out of the 19 available instructors was interviewed. Two technologists from each affiliated hospital were also selected for face-to-face interviews. A categorization approach was used to analyze the data with the goal of identifying core themes. Results: Our qualitative analysis led to the identification of nine themes from the focus group discussion and face-to-face interviews. From the students’ and instructors’ points of view, love of profession, transportation services, clinical supervision, theory-practice gap, hands-on practice, imaging modalities, availability of a skills lab, insufficient practicing area, and curriculum were considered as important factors in the clinical placement experience. Conclusion: This research showed students and instructors faced many challenges during the clinical placements of radiology technology students from Addis Ababa University, and these challenges may significantly affect the future performance of these students as technologists.Keywords: Clinical placement; health professional instructors; radiologic technologist; Ethiopia; health sciences; hospital practice; challenges
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