Chest reporting by radiographers: Findings of an accredited postgraduate programme

AimTo analyse the objective structured examination (OSE) results of the first six cohorts of radiographers (n = 40) who successfully completed an accredited postgraduate programme in clinical reporting of adult chest radiographs.MethodsOne hundred chest radiographs were used in the OSE which included a range of abnormal cases (prevalence of abnormal examinations approximated 50%) and included: cardiac, pulmonary, pleural, interstitial, inflammatory, neoplastic and traumatic appearances on patients referred from a range of referral sources. Normal variants and incidental findings were also included. True/false positive and negative fractions were used to mark the responses which were also scored for agreement with the previously agreed expected answers based on agreement between three consultant radiologists' reports.ResultsMean sensitivity and specificity rates, for all six cohorts (4000 reports), was 95.4% (95% CI 94.4%–96.3%) and 95.9% (95% CI 94.9%–96.7%), respectively. The mean agreement rate was 89% (95% CI 88.0%–89.0%) and the most common errors were related to heart size, hilar enlargement or pleural effusion (false positive); and skeletal appearances or pneumothoraces (false negative).ConclusionsThese OSE results suggest therefore that in an academic setting, and following an accredited postgraduate education programme, this group of radiographers has the ability to correctly identify normal chest radiographs and are able to provide a report on the abnormal appearances to a high standard. Further work is required to confirm the clinical application of these findings.