-This module covers the specialist technical skills that a clinical photographer needs, along with a knowledge and understanding of the issues surrounding the use of photography in healthcare locations, with patients and in the operating theatre.

-You will learn how to set up, organise and prepare for a photographic shoot in a healthcare location, how to deal with patient photography in the studio setting, how to use lighting techniques in order to illustrate particular anatomical or dermatological features and how to use the specialist equipment associated with ophthalmic, dental and surgical photography.

-You will learn about the legal and ethical issues associated with patient photography and the use of such photographs, and you will have the opportunity to reflect critically on the application of this knowledge in your own workplace, in supporting the welfare of patients.

Assignments 1-5 consist of practical photographic work that must be undertaken in the workplace and require a technical log (of varying length) [Learning Outcomes 1-3] Technical logs must include Planning & Preparation, Research Undertaken and an Evaluation of your practice on the particular assignment.

The Reflective Report requires you to consider your continuous professional development and provide a case study in relation to professional practice and patient care management [Learning Outcomes 3-4].

Due to PSRB requirements, all elements of assessment must be passed in order to pass the module overall.

Formative Assessment: Midway formative feedback will be embedded via the draft system, providing structured opportunities for feedback on work-in-progress to support student development and progression.

This module is delivered by distance learning, which means, following the initial induction sessions at the start of the course, you will be expected to engage in independent study, supported by material on Blackboard, the course team and facilities in your workplace.

You will carry out a series of practical assignments, each of which covers a specific area of professional practice. You will document the research, decisions and analyses that inform this work, in an assignment technical log. The technical log will consider the use of photography in a variety of clinical environments, including the operating theatre, and reflect on the legal and ethical issues surrounding the photography of patients and the use of the resulting photographs.

The overall reflective report will reflect critically on your professional practice and consider a variety of theoretical approaches to the general issues of patient care, in relation to photography and will refer to specific case studies, in discussing the ways in which you, as a clinical photographer, can best support the general well-being of patients.

1. Demonstrate the professional skills and attributes required to produce a photographic record that describes the function of a department, and is suitable for public display, in order to communicate the nature of the department to lay audiences, and articulate evidence of research and pictorial development in a technical log.

Communication
Research Skills

2. Produce clinically useful, ophthalmic, dental, clinical and surgical photographs, exercising judgement in the choice of particular photographic and lighting techniques and articulate this this in a technical log.

Digital Literacy
Application & problem-solving

3. Analyse the role of the clinical photographer and the issue of professional practice in the photography of patients on a variety of clinical environments, and to reflect critically on one’s own professional practice.

Knowledge & Understanding
Personal development & entrepreneurship

4. Reflect critically on a range of approaches to the ethical issues involved in clinical photography, and the contribution that clinical photographers can make to the dignity, comfort and well-being of patients.

Reflection
Critical reasoning & collaboration

-Library and Information Services resources
-Blackboard
-Workplace-based resources

Where older texts are included, they are retained as foundational texts within the discipline, remaining relevant where no more recent equivalent texts are available.

-Brown S, Crompton P and Lake A. (eds). 2025. Clinical Photography – theory and practice. (Routledge. London & New York). ISBN: 9781138891647

-IMI National Guidelines, available through the Resources section on Blackboard.

-Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine, e-journal published by Taylor & Francis. This e-journal is available online via the University website.

-Ross and Wilson. (2022) Anatomy & Physiology in Health and Illness. Churchill Livingstone. Later editions by Anne Waugh.

-The Shrewsbury Group. (2022) West Midlands Clinical Photographic Handbook. The Shrewsbury Group.

Learners must be employed as a Clinical Photographer in a UK-based Medical Illustration department.

This module covers the specialist technical skills that a clinical photographer needs, along with a knowledge and understanding of the issues surrounding the use of photography in healthcare locations, with patients and in the operating theatre.

You will learn organise and prepare for a photographic shoot in a healthcare location, how to deal with patient photography in the studio setting, how to use lighting techniques in order to illustrate particular anatomical or dermatological features and how to use the specialist equipment associated with ophthalmic, dental and surgical photography.

You will learn about the legal and ethical issues associated with patient photography and the use of such photographs, and you will have the opportunity to reflect critically on the application of this knowledge in your own workplace, in supporting the welfare of patients.