The gastrointestinal tract: Development, implementation & evaluation of a tailored continuing education "Best Practices" series for nuclear technologists

1028 Objectives: There is considerable variability in educational background and clinical experience of nuclear technologists in practice. Each department differs in imaging protocols, referral patterns, radiopharmaceutical availability and instrumentation. Therefore, traditional continuing education approaches at local/regional/national meetings may have limited direct applicability for individual technologists. At our institution, the nuclear radiologists developed, implemented, and evaluated the effectiveness of a tailored “Best Practices” program comprised of four structured modules on gastrointestinal scintigraphy. Methods: We developed 4 formal gastrointestinal modules for our technologists. The modules covered: (1) GI Bleeding/Meckel’s, (2) Hepatobiliary/Biliary Atresia, (3) Gastric Emptying/Aspiration and (4) Liver/Spleen/Liver Blood Pool. We administered the program as 4 one-hour sessions biweekly over 8 weeks; the clinical schedule was modified to facilitate attendance. Our 8 technologists completed a multiple-choice/short-answer test before the session (“pre-test”) and took the same test after the teaching session (“post-test”). 40% of the test questions were related to anatomy & physiology (“basic science”) and the remaining 60% to “clinical practice”. A comprehensive review test on all four topics is pending. Technologists’ individual and group performances were recorded and analyzed. Results: There was a statistically significant improvement in the performance in individual modules (p Conclusions: Traditional continuing education for nuclear technologists via formal lectures at local/regional/national meetings or individual feedback on a case-by-case basis cannot adequately address specific needs. We designed, implemented, and demonstrated the effectiveness of a new instructional program tailored by the nuclear radiologists for our own technologists. The technologists enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to learn and showed an overall average improvement of 22% after completing the four gastrointestinal tract modules. Enhanced morale and clinical performance suggest that this “Best Practices” series can serve as a model for other educational modules covering a variety of nuclear topics.