Radiology oral boards faculty development workshop: A single institution experience.

Abstract

Rationale and objectives: After >14 years, the American Board of Radiology (ABR) certifying diagnostic radiology examination is reverting to an oral format. Radiology faculty are responsible for helping trainees prepare for the examination, although many have not taken an oral examination or know how best to prepare. This study assessed faculty's perceived knowledge and confidence in facilitating oral exam teaching sessions before and after a faculty development workshop.

Materials and methods: All radiology clinical faculty from a single large academic center were invited to participate in a faculty development workshop and complete pre-and post-workshop surveys. Descriptive statistics and Fisher's exact test were performed.

Results: 36/120 faculty (30% response) completed the pre-workshop survey, 43/120 (36%) participated in the workshop and 17/43 (40% response) completed the post-workshop survey. 22/36 (61%) had previously taken an oral board examination. Most faculty were slightly or not at all familiar with the changes to the certifying examination (31, 86%) which improved after the workshop (p<0.001). All respondents (100%) were moderately or completely satisfied with the workshop overall. Faculty that had previously taken oral boards started with greater confidence in various skills related to oral boards teaching (p=0.008-0.04), but there were significant confidence improvements for all faculty in nearly all skills after the workshop (p=0.002 to 0.01).

Conclusion: An oral boards faculty development workshop was well received and demonstrated improved faculty's perceived knowledge and confidence pertaining to preparing trainees for the ABR oral certifying examination, particularly those who had not previously taken oral boards.