Undergraduate Education in Radiology
One of the ESR's aims is to attract the best students to our discipline.
The Subcommittee on Undergraduate Education was established to suggest ways to standardise and promote the radiological education amongst medical students.
The following publications are available for download:
Publications
Teaching Undergraduates Radiology This guidance paper is targeted to those who are interested in or engaged in teaching radiology to medical undergraduates.
Becoming a Radiologist This brochure is intended to inform those who are interested in the possibility of a career in radiology.
Curriculum for Undergraduate Radiological Education The Curriculum for Undergraduate Radiological Education is meant to provide radiologists involved in curricular planning in medical faculties throughout Europe with potential contents.
Teaching Undergraduates Radiology
LEARNING OUTCOMES AND MOTIVATION FOR UNDERGRADUATES
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Identifying the desired learning outcomes is a vital step in setting teaching
at the appropriate level for the student. You should always know what you expect students to be able to do as a result of your teaching. -
This may be established for you by those managing the course in which your teaching occurs. If so, make sure you know what is recommended. If not, work out learning outcomes by yourself and ensure these are communicated to the students.
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Ensure what you are teaching correlates with and supports the local curriculum that
the students are following. If you teach material outside this, do not be surprised if they are less interested. -
Make sure you know what stage of the o cial curriculum the undergraduates are in and adjust your teaching level and contents to it.
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Think of radiology-speci c outcomes. What speci c radiological knowledge, skills, competences and attitudes should undergraduates learn during your class?
Examples include being able to name basic radiological anatomy on a chest radiograph.
Becoming a Radiologist
WHAT TYPES OF JOBS EXIST?
Radiology today provides a wide range of different working lives. The radiologist who works in a small hospital or diagnostic centre usually provides a service across the whole of the specialty, often involving most of the available imaging techniques. In larger centres radiologists may be focused in a specific clinical area and may work exclusively with selected clinical subspecialties. A radiologist who chooses to work in one of these areas acquires a high level of expertise in the subspecialty and can expect to develop very close working relationships with clinical colleagues.
Most radiologists, whether they specialise or not, will find that their work consists of a variety of activities, ranging from providing reports on diagnostic studies to a large element of practical or ‘hands-on’ work with patients. Depending on the healthcare system of the country, radiologists may also work in independent diagnostic clinics. Generally a number of radiologists are involved in these and may take personal responsibility for di erent subspecialties. Working in these clinics o ers rewards from working closely together in a small team.
Curriculum for Undergraduate Radiological Education
U-Level Curriculum
The Curriculum for Undergraduate Radiological Education (U-Level Curriculum) is meant to provide radiologists involved in curricular planning in medical faculties throughout Europe with potential contents. The role and extent of radiology within undergraduate medical education varies widely between medi- cal faculties and countries. The current U-Level Curriculum is by no means meant as a ubiquitous requirement, but rather as a basis to work on in curricular planning, depending on the individual situa- tion in the respective medical faculty. Parts of the curricular contents of this curriculum may seem too advanced for some situations in undergraduate medical education; these can be reserved for medical students with a special interest in radiology, e.g. those performing electives in radiology.
The U-Level Curriculum is divided into two modules. Module U-I covers basic topics in radiation biology, radiation protection and imaging modalities. Module U-II contains the fundamental principles of radiol- ogy and image-guided interventions for the most important and/or common disorders. As with Levels I, II and III of the European Training Curriculum for Radiology, the chapters of the U-Level Curriculum are further subdivided into the chapters Knowledge, Skills and Competences & Attitudes.