Student Concerns and Misconceptions about A Career in Radiology

Abstract

Y ear after year, medical students pose questions that reflect the same concerns and misconceptions about a career in radiology.While radiology educators and practicing radiologists may perceive many of these reservations as ill-founded or misguided, they are nonetheless important to recognize and address. Student decisions about careers are determined not only by what students know, but also by what they think they know. If students opt for radiology or eschew it based on inaccurate information, this benefits neither the students nor the field of radiology. In what follows, we briefly identify and suggest strategies for educating students about a dozen concerns and misconceptions. #1. Radiologists are not real doctors. American College of Radiology focus group studies have suggested that approximately one-half of the general population does not know that radiologists are physicians (1). At most medical schools, there is no required course in radiology, and at many others, radiologists play little teaching role in the medical school curriculum. As a result, students have little opportunity to see radiologists in action. If such misconceptions are to be corrected, it is incumbent on academic radiologists to seek opportunities to expand their role in medical student teaching, ensuring that each future physician understands who radiologists are and what they do (2). Medical students who do not choose radiology as a career still constitute the field’s future referral base. #2. Radiologists have little or no patient interaction. There is some truth to this. Some radiologists may go days or even weeks without interacting directly with a patient. But it is important to point out that many radiologic disciplines, such as interventional radiology and mammography, involve a high degree of patient interaction, and radiologists in all disciplines have opportunities to interact with patients (3). Moreover, radiologists make a huge contribution to day-to-