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. 2021 Feb 12;12(1):17.
doi: 10.1186/s13244-021-00971-1.

Bridging the divide between medical school and clinical practice: identification of six key learning outcomes for an undergraduate preparatory course in radiology

Thabisile Simelane  1 , David J Ryan  2 , Slavi Stoyanov  3 , Deirdre Bennett  4 , Mark McEntee  5 , Michael M Maher  6   7 , Colm M P O'Tuathaigh  4 , Owen J O'Connor  6   7
Affiliations

Bridging the divide between medical school and clinical practice: identification of six key learning outcomes for an undergraduate preparatory course in radiology

Thabisile Simelane et al. Insights Imaging. .

Abstract

Background: There exists a significant divide between what is learnt in medical school and subsequently what is required to practice medicine effectively. Despite multiple strategies to remedy this discordance, the problem persists. Here, we describe the identification of a comprehensive set of learning outcomes for a preparation for practice course in radiology.

Methods: Assessment of interns' readiness to interact with the radiology department was conducted using a national survey of both interns and radiologists. In parallel, group concept mapping (GCM) which involves a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques was used to identify the shared understanding of participants from a diverse range of medical specialties regarding what topics should be included in an intern preparatory course for interacting with the radiology department.

Results: The survey demonstrated that most interns and radiologists felt that undergraduate medical training did not prepare interns to interact with the radiology department. GCM identified six learning outcomes that should be targeted when designing a preparatory module: requesting investigations; clinical decision support; radiology department IT and communication; adverse reactions and risks; interpretation of radiology results and urgent imaging. The thematic clusters from the group concept mapping corroborated the deficiencies identified in the national survey.

Conclusion: We have identified six key learning outcomes that should be included in a preparation for practice module in radiology. Future courses targeting these thematic clusters may facilitate a smoother transition from theory to practice for newly graduated doctors.

Keywords: Group concept mapping; Internship; Interventional radiology; Medical school; Preparedness for clinical practice; Radiologists; Radiology.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Cluster map of key learning objectives for a preparatory course. Multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis revealed six thematic clusters. Each individual point corresponds to a statement (n = 87). The closer statements are to each other, the closer in meaning they were perceived to be by participants performing the sorting. Bridging values (BV) for each cluster are shown in parentheses (see Additional file 1: Appendix C)
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