How We Embedded Consumer Engagement Into Workplace Education and Continuing Professional Development: A Quality...

Consumer engagement, meaning the active involvement of patients and carers with lived experience, is increasingly recognised as central to high-quality, patient-centred healthcare, and in Australia it is embedded in national accreditation standards. Within diagnostic imaging departments, however, consumer perspectives remain under-represented in workplace education and continuing professional development (CPD), where educational activities have traditionally prioritised technical competency and workflow. This is despite the fact that clinicians frequently meet patients at vulnerable moments. This paper describes how a tertiary imaging department embedded consumer engagement across workplace education and CPD, governance and service improvement, and outlines practical lessons for departments wishing to implement similar initiatives. It draws on a series of initiatives undertaken within a tertiary imaging department between 2024 and 2025, including consumer storytelling within multidisciplinary workshops and continuing professional development, consumer co-design of patient information resources, a dedicated patient-experience role, and consumer participation in departmental governance. We considered these activities alongside established frameworks for patient involvement in health-professions education and for consumer participation, and we reflected on the practical conditions that distinguish meaningful engagement from tokenism: clarity of purpose, attention to consumer wellbeing, and a shift from symbolic inclusion towards genuine partnership. The activities are illustrated with feedback volunteered by clinicians and consumers, although we are careful to note that these reflections are not a formal evaluation. We argue that consumer storytelling and structured engagement are feasible, low-resource strategies that may promote reflection on empathy, communication and patient-centred practice, while offering practical approaches for embedding consumer engagement within imaging departments. Formal evaluation of educational and patient outcomes remains the necessary next step.