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Preparing to sit the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Radiologists Faculty of Radiation Oncology Fellowship Part 2 examination: the value of a workshop including practice and feedback.

Bydder S, Bloomfield L, Dally M, Harris P, Dorset L, Semmens J

William Buckland Radiotherapy Centre, The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, and School of Population Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia. sean.bydder@health.wa.gov.au

A workshop has been held annually to help prepare candidates to sit the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Radiologists Part 2 Faculty of Radiation Oncology examination. This study examined the value of such a course and its component parts and assessed attendees' learning environments. We collected detailed information from participants before and after the training workshop in 2005. A specific feature of this workshop included the use of an examination technique feedback form to facilitate the provision of systematic and comprehensive feedback to individual candidates after mock examination. Participants completed course evaluation forms and a learning environment survey. There were 22 candidate participants. The course and its components of this course were perceived very positively - including the examination technique feedback forms and written advice. Only three of the 24 questions regarding the registrars learning environment had less than 80% favourable responses - two of these questions related to workload. The course design described seems reasonably satisfactory in that it included the components ranked most highly by candidates. We also identified a number of variations that may be useful for future workshops. Although learning environments were generally good, we identified a perceived problem with workloads affecting a significant number of registrars.

Published 6 September 2007 in Australas Radiol, 51(5): 465-71.
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