One-minute Preceptors in Action: Breast Radiologists and the Medical Student General Radiology Elective

Abstract

Abstract Breast imaging, with its unique patient-facing, multimodality, and multidisciplinary workflow, offers opportunities to engage medical students enrolled in a general radiology rotation and to highlight the role of the radiologist in patient care. At a time when breast radiologists face unprecedented challenges in delivering safe and efficient imaging services, however, accommodating larger numbers of medical students can overwhelm reading rooms, dilute meaningful learning experiences for the student, and place further demands on faculty. In order to meet the students’ and clinician educators’ needs, Neher’s one-minute preceptor teaching strategy is used to create a high-yield learning environment in a short amount of time. In this model, the breast radiologist weaves together multiple impactful and varied learning experiences in only 8 to 12 total hours of structured student exposure during the 160-hour general radiology course. We describe our adaptation of this technique and the positive impact that a short breast imaging component had on our general radiology medical student rotation. This standardized curriculum is easily adaptable to a variety of learning styles. It contributes to medical students’ understanding of the various facets of radiology through direct participation and exceeds education goals set forth by the Alliance of Medical Student Educators in Radiology. Students’ evaluations of the general radiology rotation demonstrated a sharp uptick in the year following the adoption of the technique, and students’ rotation final examination mean scores on the breast questions were higher for students who participated at least eight hours on service in the breast radiology clinic.