Fundamentals course for 1st-year radiology residents

Rationale and Objectives. The authors set out to pro- vide 1st-year residents with basic knowledge to make conferences more useful, to make their knowledge more uniform, and to assess their competency to begin night call. Materials and Methods. Faculty taught three afternoon sessions a week in subspecialty areas of radiology, including physics, during the 1st 6 months of residency. Material selected was believed to be essential for the understanding of that subspecialty's didactic lecture series. Emphasis was also placed on diagnoses residents would be expected to make once they began taking night call. Material was presented through lectures, images, and unknown cases. An examination was administered at the end of the course. Residents were allowed to begin night can only after completing the course and passing the final examination. Results. All Ist-year residents completed the course and passed the examination. Their scores ranged from 70% to 83.3%. Conclusion. Residents liked the course and reported feeling ready to begin call. Faculty reported the residents who completed the course were more knowledgeable prior to formal rotations than residents from previous years who had not taken the course.