Document resource
Introduction Nuclear cardiology is a core component of the previous (2016) and new (2022) Joint Royal College of Physicians Training Board Cardiology Curricula for UK cardiology trainees. However, in the past three years respondents to the British Junior Cardiovascular Society’s trainee survey have rated nuclear cardiology as the most difficult area of the cardiology curriculum to access. To address this training deficit, three lecture-based Level 1 nuclear cardiology courses are available, but none include a hospital-based training component. In response, and to enhance the accessibility and quality of UK nuclear cardiology training, under the auspices of the British Nuclear Cardiology Society we implemented a hospital-based nuclear cardiology taster week for cardiology trainees.Methods A set of Level 1 learning outcomes and a pilot timetable were developed. The taster week was advertised to UK cardiology trainees via their training programme directors and the British Junior Cardiovascular Society’s newsletter. The taster week comprised five days of supervised observation of SPECT and PET acquisition and reporting at the Royal Free, St Bartholomew’s, and King’s College Hospitals, London. Twenty expressions of interest were received, and applicants who were cardiology trainees and available for a full week were accepted. All trainees completed feedback afterwards using a Likert scale from 1 (negative) to 5 (positive).Results Six cardiology trainees were offered a taster week, and all attended. Three were female, and five attended using study leave. Of the 30 potential trainee-days, 5.5 were missed due to various unforeseen trainee-, departmental-, and consultant-related factors. Daily feedback ratings were consistently high: Monday (mean = 4.75/5, mode = 5), Tuesday (mean = 4.7/5, mode = 5), Wednesday (mean = 4.8/5, mode = 5), Thursday (mean = 4.5/5, mode = 4.5), and Friday (mean = 4.8/5, mode = 5). The modalities with the highest exposure were myocardial perfusion, 99mTc-DPD, FDG, and hybrid PET/CT imaging. Trainees rated the extent to which the taster week improved their understanding of nuclear cardiology (mean = 4.6/5, mode = 5), inspired them to learn more (mean = 4.5/5, mode = 5), and encouraged them to consider nuclear cardiology as a career (mean = 3.8/5, mode = 4). The mean overall experience rating was 4.6/5 (mode = 5), indicating the taster week was very well received.Conclusion To supplement existing lecture-based training courses and address the nuclear cardiology training deficit for UK cardiology trainees, we implemented the first UK-wide nuclear cardiology taster week. The programme was successfully piloted and, to our knowledge, is the first of its kind internationally. Following the success of this pilot, we plan to implement an expanded version in the next academic year and would encourage other regions in the UK and internationally to adopt similar initiatives.