Burnout levels among radiographers, sonographers and radiologists are high and likely to vary according to some demographic and work-related factors. Further research is needed to examine ways to alleviate burnout in these professions so that loss of experienced staff due to burnout can be minimized and quality of patient care can be maintained.

Background: Empathy is a difficult characteristic to define, teach and assess; the 'nebulous' properties of empathic behaviour often means that educators fail to incorporate the explicit teaching and assessment of empathy within the curriculum. One solution suggested is that teaching empathy in an interprofessional education setting is an effective educational approach in developing empathic behaviours. Method: Student participants from Monash University, Deakin University, University of South Australia, and Edith Cowan University completed a self-reporting survey package pre and post two-hour empathy workshop consisting of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy -Health Profession -Student version (JSE-HP-S). Results: A total of 293 students from 12 different medical and health care professions participated in the empathy workshops. The majority of participants were from Monash University n = 230 (78 %), the nursing profession n = 59 (20 %), < 26 years of age n = 215 (73 %) and enrolled in first year studies n = 123 (42 %). Using a paired t-test repeated measure self-reported empathy levels improved at p < 0.0001, mean 114.34 vs. 120.32 (d = 0.22). Conclusion: This project has shown that self-reported empathy levels have been shown to statistically improve following DVD simulation-based workshops.

In recent years the role of the radiation therapist (RT) has increasingly evolved. In Australia, one of the major developments has been the transition from practice which was rarely based on scientific evidence, to the profession today which engages in and incorporates research into everyday practice. The aim of this article is to provide an insight into the current status of Australian radiation therapy research. In order to present a national overview, a survey relating to research activity was e-mailed to all (48) clinical centres in Australia. Thirty-six out of the 48 centres responded, representing 13 private and 23 public centres. The results demonstrated that a research culture is beginning to be established and that there are challenges associated with implementing research. The role of universities in facilitating the development of research skills was considered important with an increasing number of practitioners undertaking higher research degrees. Overall, research activity in the Australian radiation therapy community is becoming more prevalent. If the profession is to continue to strengthen its research profile the professional body and universities need to continue providing academic and funding support. Greater focus on multidisciplinary collaboration is needed with direct involvement of RTs in multi-centre studies.

The objective for this study was to determine whether learning style preferences of health science students could predict their attitudes to e-learning. A survey comprising the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) and the Online Learning Environment Survey (OLES) was distributed to 2885 students enrolled in 10 different health science programs at an Australian university. A total of 822 useable surveys were returned generating a response rate of 29.3%. Using SPSS, a linear regression analysis was completed. On the ILS Active-Reflective dimension, 44% of health science students reported a preference as being active learners, 60% as sensing learners, and 64% as sequential learners. Students' attitudes toward e-learning using the OLES showed that their preferred scores for all 9 subscales were higher than their actual scores. The linear regression analysis results indicated that ILS learning styles accounted for a small percentage of the OLES actual and preferred subscales' variance. For the OLES actual subscales, the ILS Active-Reflective and Sensing-Intuitive learning style dimensions were the most frequent predictors of health science students' attitudes towards elearning. For the OLES preferred subscales, ILS Active-Reflective and Sequential-Global learning style dimensions accounted for the most frequent source of variance. It appears that the learning styles of health science students (as measured by the ILS) can be used only to a limited extent as a predictor of students' attitudes towards elearning. Nevertheless, educators should still consider student learning styles in the context of using technology for instructional purposes.