UNDERGRADUATE RADIOLOGY EDUCATION: HOW CONFIDENT DO JUNIOR DOCTORS

FEEL ABOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE?

Mitesh Naik
Tunbridge Wells Hospital, Tonbridge Road, Pembury, Kent, TN2 4QJ

AIMS

RESULTS

The RCR has published guidance regarding imaging in undergraduate medical

education and has suggested a core syllabus for medical schools to adhere to1.
Within this guidance, knowledge of guidelines such as Making the Best Use of a
Department of Clinical Radiology (now referred to as iRefer) is expected.

Respondents were all FY1 doctors who studied at 7 different institutions.

The primary aim of this study was to assess how confident junior doctors felt
about material listed in the syllabus. A further aim was to gauge understanding of
iRefer.

METHODS
A questionnaire (Figure 1) was distributed to junior doctors asking them to score
how confident they were at demonstrating knowledge and recognition of clinical
conditions listed in the RCR syllabus. Confidence was scored as a scale from 1
(not confident) to 5 (very confident). Further questions were asked about
awareness of iRefer.

Average confidence scores at the end of medical school:

Thoracic imaging (including cardiac failure, pulmonary collapse/consolidation,
pneumothorax, hyperinflation, free air under diaphragm, masses): 3.5 / 5
Abdominal imaging (including bowel obstruction, megacolon, perforation,
aneurysm, gallstones, renal stones, foreign bodies): 3.3 / 5
Skeletal imaging (including fractures of femur, wrist, shoulder, pelvis, c-spine
and skull, signs of osteoarthritis, metastases): 2.9 / 5
o 40% not confident about c-spine fractures, 18% not confident about wrist
fractures/dislocations

FIGURE 2: Pie charts illustrating answers to other survey questions

FIGURE 1: Radiology Teaching Survey

CONCLUSION
These results demonstrate that junior doctors lack confidence in their knowledge of
common topics highlighted in the RCR syllabus. Understanding of guidelines such
as iRefer is poor. This must be addressed, perhaps by disseminating this
information to medical schools and furthering education at both undergraduate and
postgraduate level.
REFERENCES
1. Royal College of Radiologists. Undergraduate radiology curriculum. 2012.
http://www.rcr.ac.uk/docs/radiology/pdf/undergraduate_radiology_curriculum_2012.pdf.
2. Royal College of Radiologists. iRefer guidelines: making the best use of clinical radiology. 2013.
http://www.irefer.org.uk.