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Introduction: Practice learning is critical to the development of clinical skills; hence placements are a major component of all pre-registration radiography programmes. Nonetheless, dissatisfaction with practicum experiences is a common reason why students consider leaving such programmes. Providing effective placements which promote retention may not only require better appreciation of students' clinical reflections, but also a more fundamental understanding of the implicit criteria they use to appraise a practicum. This study applied the theory of human relatedness (THR) to the placement experiences of radiography undergraduates to identify the evaluative mechanisms which may underpin these experiences., Methods: A critical realist investigative approach was employed to reanalyse data regarding the practicum experiences of stakeholders involved in undergraduate diagnostic radiography programmes at two universities in Australia and Ethiopia against the eight core THR concepts, namely connectedness, disconnectedness, parallelism, enmeshment, belonging, reciprocity, mutuality, and synchrony., Results: The findings identified all states of relatedness and processes/social competencies of the THR within the placement experiences of these stakeholders. The degree of positive relatedness a radiography student experiences within a practicum, irrespective of the setting, may affect their clinical performance., Conclusion: The findings support the argument that the THR may reflect an implicit set of criteria stakeholders use to evaluate clinical encounters. Additionally, these results are congruent with earlier investigations regarding the practicum reflections of other undergraduate healthcare students., Implications for Practice: To enhance student placement experiences, it is necessary to recognise the effect a student's sense of relatedness may have on their self-efficacy and proficiency, modifying pre-practicum preparation and assessment arrangements to inhibit disconnectedness and enmeshment, avoid the need for parallelism, and better cultivate connectedness, belonging, reciprocity, mutuality, and synchrony., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement None., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Clinical placements (CP) are of paramount importance in the learning and the acquisition of key competencies in terms of knowledge, skill and professional attributes required for clinical radiography practice. This study explored the challenges faced by radiography students and educators in relation to clinical placement and training in Ethiopia., Methods: A qualitative approach using focus group discussion and interviews were used to explore the experiences of students and educators, respectively, pertaining to challenges encountered in relation to the clinical placement of students across four university affiliated hospitals. Data obtained was analysed using a structured three step framework and the coding approach employed in a thematic analysis., Results: Participants comprise of third- and fourth-year undergraduate radiography students (n = 14) and educators [academic faculty (n = 7) and clinical practice educators (n = 8)]. Four main themes were identified, which relate to deficiencies of an existing training curriculum and its implementation strategies, inadequate resource and infrastructure within the CP environments and absence of advanced training opportunities., Conclusion: This research showed that there are many and varied challenges encountered by both students and educators in relation to CP and training of radiography students in Ethiopia. These challenges could potentially affect the future performance of students/practitioners and/or the appropriate application of the core clinical radiography skills and competencies in the world of work., Implications for Practice: Clinical radiography training in resource-limited settings will require urgent attention and support with modern infrastructure including simulation to augment their clinical development to acceptable standards., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement None., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)