Framework for a radiography student podcast
Abstract
Podcasts refer to episodes of audio content that are readily available on streaming applications on smartphones or computers. This paper reports on the development of the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ series for radiography students and provides suggestions for evaluation. Podcast development followed a structured framework, including identification of podcast topics and expert guests, content development, audio recording, episode upload to host site and distribution. Using a framework was useful to guide development and ensure consistency across podcast episodes. Evaluation through podcast usage data, surveys and focus groups provides a comprehensive strategy to explore radiography students' perception of the newly developed podcast series.
Background
The ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ series was created for radiography students to promote student wellbeing during clinical placements. This manuscript outlines the methods undertaken to produce the series, with the intent to support further development in podcasts within the medical radiation profession. Furthermore, we comment on costs and possible evaluation methods that may be appropriate for this type of media, which will be of interest to medical radiation practitioners interested in developing podcast resources. We have incorporated methods of evaluation and intend to report on the results in a subsequent paper.
Podcasts for Students
Podcasts refer to episodes of audio content that are readily available on streaming applications on smartphones or computers.1 Podcasts provide a flexible and personal way that students can interact with topics, while being available on online platforms.1-3 This allows students to multitask, for example listening while at the gym, while driving or while performing other daily activities.1, 2
There is extensive literature on the benefits of podcasts as a learning resource for medical professionals, particularly for emergency physicians, radiologists, anaesthetists and nurses.4-7 Malecki et al.5 found that medical learners listened to medical based podcasts for educational reasons, but also for entertainment. Anteby et al.7 found podcasts to be a cost-effective way to support online learning.
A recent study by Dreer8 reported on the successful use of podcasts as a wellbeing intervention for student teachers. Wellbeing interventions, in any form, could support radiography students on clinical placements, as this period of intensive learning and adaptation is known to negatively impact students' wellbeing.9, 10 It is important to provide students with resources and training to manage the emotional burdens of clinical training. This can be achieved by introducing students to enhance their fitness for practice by employing skills to better manage stress and provide encouragement to use psychological and emotional support resources available. Emotional health is key for healthcare students to experience success, sustain longevity in their course and career, facilitate the environment to provide quality patient care and boost their own wellbeing in preparation for the workforce.11 Research into podcasting specifically to radiography students is growing in the literature,12, 13 and to the best of our knowledge, there are no published studies that explore the use of podcasts to support wellbeing in radiography students.
Podcast Development
The development of the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ will be presented under the following five headings: (1) Podcast topics; (2) Host and expert guests; (3) Scripted questions and expert guest review; (4) Audio recording and editing; and (5) Episode upload and distribution.
A literature search was conducted to identify an existing framework for podcast development. The use of a framework aimed to provide a standardised process for planning and recording each episode. The podcasts were developed using a modified version of Ghiathi et al.'s14 framework for podcast production. The modification from Giathi's framework related to removal of the ‘scripted draft’ step, as the only scripted component of the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ was chosen to be the questions posed to the content expert in each episode. As such, it was anticipated that a conversational tone would result between the host and the expert guest. This type of discussion was chosen to enhance relatability for the student audience.
The ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ featured expert guests on each topic per episode; therefore, Ghiathi et al.'s framework was adapted to include steps required to involve an expert guest in each podcast. As shown in Figure 1, the resulting framework involved eight steps and was considered an effective guide to provide consistency between podcast episodes.14
Podcast topics
The aim of the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ was to provide wellbeing support to radiography students during clinical placements. To identify relevant topics, a literature review was conducted to review challenges experienced by students on clinical placement. Identified topics were discussed with student and academics, to integrate different perspectives, considering that the podcast could only address a limited number of topics, rather than be exhaustive. Topics relating to key challenges and student concerns were extracted from available studies and grouped into seven topics that became the basis for each podcast episode: clinical placement challenges,9, 10, 15, 16 mental health,9, 15, 17 current university culture,9, 10, 18 coping mechanisms,10 high workload,9, 16, 19 apprehension of clinical placement9, 10, 15-17, 19 and placement support,10 as detailed in Table 1. The final episode list is described in Table 2. One introductory podcast was also included to provide listeners with context to the podcast series.
| Overarching podcast topic | Sub-topics and content |
|---|---|
| Clinical placement challenges |
Bullying and hurtful criticism15, 16 Difficult/challenging patients9, 16 Perceived stressful situations9, 10 Interactions with other radiographers9 |
| Mental health |
Overall mental health15 Confronting situations, including sick and dying patients9, 15 Rural placements17 |
| Current university culture |
Support networks10 University life balance18 |
| Coping mechanisms |
Stress management10 Supporting each other through friendship10 |
| High workload |
Poor diet19 |
| Apprehension of clinical placement | |
| Placement support |
University support options10 Managing supervisor conflict10 |
| Podcast number | Overarching podcast topic | Expert guest | Podcast name | Episode length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Introduction | – | Introductory podcast | 4 min |
| 1 | Clinical placement challenges | Chief radiographer and student supervisor | Chief Rob Chats Placement | 21 min |
| 2 | Mental health | Wellbeing expert with experience managing students | Sarah, the Wellbeing Saviour | 45 min (split into part 1 and part 2) |
| 3 | Current university culture | Current senior university students enrolled in the diagnostic radiography course | I Sat with Elly and Matt | 31 min |
| 4 | Coping mechanisms | Senior research radiation therapist, PhD in Organisational Psychology and previous lecturer and clinical education unit coordinator at University of Sydney | Jabbering with John | 30 min |
| 5 | High workload | Holistic health coach | Fleur Talks Full Time Work | 27 min |
| 6 | Apprehension of clinical placement | Current junior university students enrolled in the diagnostic radiography course. | Jad and Matea's X-ray Experience | 29 min |
| 7 | Placement support | Clinical academic. | The WIL Wavelength | 31 min |
A conclusion for each podcast episode was recorded by the podcast host and consisted of a summary statement based on each episode's topic and suggestion for practical activities to improve wellbeing. The aim of this was to promote wellbeing habits in students. These topics were chosen based on a literature search of general wellbeing habits and activities that could apply to general student populations, for example walking in nature.
Host and expert guests
The podcast host needs to have significant understanding of the podcast context, as well as being confident and articulate. In the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ series, the podcast host was a final-year undergraduate radiography student (EG), who took significant responsibility for guiding the podcast content. The podcast host provided an introduction, conclusion and interview questions for the expert guest.
In the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’, expert guests were identified by the podcast development team based on their academic networks, considering that experts required knowledge and expertise of each identified topic (Table 1). Student experts were identified through an expression of interest advertised to all students at our institution. Each expert guest signed a podcast release form to ensure their content could be released. Once the expert guest confirmed participation, in-depth content was established, including sub-topics and preliminary questions.
Scripted questions and expert guest review
The ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ series was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic; hence, online recordings were undertaken. The podcast host met with each expert guest over Zoom (Zoom Video Communications Inc., California, USA) prior to the podcast recording to discuss the podcast topic and preliminary questions for discussion. The scripted questions were refined at the expert's discretion. The guest experts were also informed that the podcast intended to include spontaneous content that flowed from the scripted questions.
Audio recording and editing
The audio recording of each podcast was completed over Zoom, using a Rode USB microphone (RØDE Microphones, Sydney, NSW, Australia) and an Apple Mac laptop (Apple Inc., CA). Zoom interviews ranged between 20 and 45 min. The mp4 (video) file was converted to mp3 (audio) and imported into GarageBand editing software (Apple Inc.). Editing involved removing sections where errors occurred and adding a conclusion.
Podcast upload and distribution
The final audio file was exported as a medium-quality mp3 file and uploaded to the Simplecast website (Audios Ventures Inc., New York, NY, USA). Graphics displaying the expert guest and podcast name were also created, and a release date was set. On the release dates, Simplecast automatically distributed each episode to common podcast platforms, including Spotify (Spotify, Stockholm, Sweden), Audible (Amazon.com, NJ), Google Podcasts (Google, CA) and Apple Podcasts (Apple Inc., CA). The first episode of the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ series was launched on 1 December 2021, and six subsequent episodes were released weekly, excluding specific dates in December due to the holiday period.
Costs
Approximately eight hours were spent producing each episode. The total development time was approximately 60 h. The costs associated with the production amounted to $350 (AUD), consisting of Simplecast subscription for five months and a microphone.
The cost associated with developing this series was relatively low in comparison with others in the literature.7 The production time of 8 hours per podcast episode is consistent with Anteby et al.'s7 reported production time of an average of 9 ± 1.26 hours per episode. Similarly, this study's results are comparable with Cho et al.'s4 reported 2–3 hours per podcast of 8–10 min considering the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ episodes averaged 30 min and 30 sec.
Additional cost considerations may be travel or time reimbursements for expert guests, loan of equipment or access to a professional recording studio.
Podcast Evaluation
In the literature, publications report on a wide range of outcomes for podcast evaluation, including users' satisfaction with podcasts,20 usage behaviours5 and impact on learning outcomes.20, 21 Three methodologies commonly employed are analysis of podcast usage data, surveys, and interviews or focus groups. We recommend that ethical approval should also be sought to ensure the research is well designed and to support dissemination of findings. Results from the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ evaluation are beyond the scope of this publication and are reported in a subsequent paper.13
Podcast usage data
For the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’, podcast usage data were collected from the streaming platform. These data were initially downloaded 4 months after the release of the podcast series. Data provided the project team with an overview of the most popular podcast episodes (via number of downloads per podcast per day over a set time), listening platforms used (e.g. computer or phone) and geographical location of podcast download, to provide a description of the geographic reach of the podcast series. These data were input into Excel (Microsoft Corporation, Washington) and analysed descriptively, where the frequency, median and percentages of responses for each analytic data item were calculated.
Online surveys
For the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ series, the online survey site REDCap (Vanderbilt, Nashville) was used to facilitate the surveys and the survey link was included within each podcast description. The survey was specifically developed for the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ series and consisted of 13 questions, relating to demographic factors, podcast listening habits and participants' perceptions of the podcast episode on a 5-point Likert scale (strongly disagree–strongly agree), as detailed in Table 3. Demographic factors and Likert scale data were both analysed using descriptive statistics, calculating percentages and frequency of responses to survey items for each podcast episodes or for the entire podcast series. This was a suitable method to explore radiography students' perception of each podcast episode and the potential impact of this resource as a wellbeing intervention;13 however, it should be noted that due to the common usage style of podcasts (e.g. while multitasking), surveys may not yield a high response rate for voluntary participation, as listeners may be engaged in activities that limit their capacity to simultaneously complete a survey.
| Section | Item | Response option |
|---|---|---|
| Demographic questions | Enrolment type | Undergraduate/Postgraduate |
| Year 1; Year 2; Year 3; Year 4 | ||
| Gender | Female; Male; Prefer not to say | |
| Time spent listening to podcasts in general (hours per week) | Nil; Less than 1; 1–2; 3–4; 5–6; More than 7 | |
| Time spent listening to medical or educational podcasts (hours per week) | Nil; Less than 1; 1–2; 3–4; 5–6; More than 7 | |
| Perception of the podcast | I like the podcast topic | 5-Point Likert scale (strongly agree–strongly disagree) |
| The content of the podcast was interesting | ||
| The podcast was the right length of time to hold my attention | ||
| The podcast will be helpful for my current or future placements | ||
| The strategies for wellbeing discussed in the podcast will help me during my clinical placements |
Interviews or focus groups
Interviews and focus groups are a valuable method for collecting data from participants' experiences with an education intervention in medicine and health.20 Both interviews and focus groups have advantages and disadvantages, and consideration should be given to these when planning for a qualitative evaluation.22 To reduce participant bias, it is recommended that the interview or focus group facilitator be independent to the podcast production team. For focus groups, the literature recommends groups of approximately five participants, with considerations of data saturation.22, 23 With respect to focus group numbers, fewer than five people per group can result in lacking discussion and depth, whereas more than six participants can result in the less confident participants going unheard.24
For the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’, ethical approval was sought from the University of Sydney (project number: 2021/763). Focus groups were run online, using Zoom, and were facilitated by an independent person, who was not involved in the study. The focus groups were semi-structured, and the facilitator asked a mixture of podcast usage and wellbeing-based questions to explore students' perceptions of the podcast, and these questions aligned with the feedback required by the research team. Focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim using Zoom transcription technology, prior to being analysed.13
Conclusion
This paper reports on the development of the ‘Breathe In Radiography Podcast’ series for radiography students. Development of a podcast as a wellbeing resource for radiography students was considered an innovative method to reach the intended audience. Using a framework was useful to guide development and ensure consistency across podcast episodes. Evaluation is an important consideration for continuous improvement and continued efforts to build innovative education and support tools for the medical radiation profession.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
The study was granted ethical approval by the University of Sydney's Human Research Executive Committee.
Open Research
Open access publishing facilitated by The University of Sydney, as part of the Wiley - The University of Sydney agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.
Data Availability Statement
Data are available from the corresponding author.
