Chiropractic student attitudes toward radiology

Diagnostic radiology is an important component of chiropractic education. Because ineffective teaching is costly in time and resources, educators need to continually evaluate both the content and design of their radiology curriculum.

A survey was administered to 121 senior students from one chiropractic institution immediately after completing presentation of the last of 11 radiology topics presented. Students reported their interest and perceived understanding of radiology topics and indicated which resources they thought were almost helpful during their training.

Students ranked arthritides as the most interesting radiology subject and patient positioning as least interesting. They felt more time should be devoted to arthritides and case correlation/patient management issues, with less time devoted to radiology physics and patient positioning. Students felt that they best understood patient positioning, skeletal trauma, arthritides and bone tumors. They reported having less understanding of specialized imaging physics. Of those learning methods available, class lectures and film review sessions were the most helpful radiology resources; film teaching libraries and videodisc system were the least helpful.

The results of this survey suggest more emphasis needs to be placed on radiology subjects that focus on the application of imaging studies in patient management and on correlating imaging findings to clinical circumstances. It seems that less time should be devoted to patient positioning and radiographic physics. Results of this survey need to be compared with goals of the radiology curriculum and objective testing before appropriate modifications are implemented.