Keywords:
Nuclear medicine, Professional issues, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, SPECT-CT, Radiation safety, Education and training
Authors:
R. Rosado del Castillo, P. GARCIA CASTAÑON, G. Paradela Díaz, S. HONORATO HERNANDEZ, P. Chamorro, C. PRIETO MARTIN
Methods or background
The nuclear medicine department is located in university hospital La Princesa (Madrid). This institution has a ‘virtual knowledge platform’, which is a web page that provides targeted continuous education to its professionals. Nuclear medicine workers have free access to this platform. One of the software tools that this platform offers to the hospital departments is Moodle (modular object oriented distance learning environment); Moodle 3.4 is the supported version with which the course was prepared [3].
The course is accredited by the regional health council, with an accredited course time of 16 hours. This characteristic makes it more appealing to professionals. The course has been developed with partial funding from the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN), the Spanish competent authority. The course consists in 11 modules:
- Nuclear medicine: basic concepts
- Operational radiation protection
- Radioactive bulks
- Radioactive waste management
- Radioactive contamination
- Radiation protection of the patient
- Therapeutic procedures
- Diagnostic procedures
- Performance rules of the facility
- Emergency plan of the facility
- Incidents: practical examples
Each module has a written lesson and some of them have extra audiovisual contents that show some specific aspects (see Figure 1). In addition to general and specific contents on radiological protection applied to both therapy and nuclear medicine diagnosis, radioactive waste management or emergencies, the course presents practical situations regarding radiation protection that participants have to solve and/or explain. Every module has a self-evaluation true or false question. Professionals can complete the assigned tasks of the course at their own pace.
A mandatory final test assesses the level of knowledge of the trainee. This test consists of 20 multiple choice questions picked from a question bank randomly. The exam has to be completed in one uninterrupted hour, and 5 out of 10 points are needed to pass the course and obtain accreditation.
A satisfaction questionnaire is also presented to the participants at the end of the course, to analyse the level of satisfaction with the education.
A complementary module is added in the end, containing useful bibliography for professionals who want to get deeper into any subject.