The role of self-evaluation and education of radiographers involved in a breast cancer screening program at Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka

Introduction: Early breast cancer detection can be achieved by enforcing the quality of mammography screening program. Hence, proper breast positioning is necessary. Systematic education of radiographers on mammographic positioning is a prerequisite for obtaining high-quality mammograms. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the importance of self-evaluation and education of radiographers involved in a breast cancer screening program.

Methods: The First School of Mammographic Positioning was organized in 2018 at Clinical Hospital Center (CHC) Rijeka and 24 radiographers included in the screening program attended. Four months after the School, an analysis and comparison of randomly selected mammograms was performed. Retrospective analysis was performed, and two sets of collected data were gathered from the period before and after the education. The quality criteria for evaluation were set and the mammograms were independently analyzed by two radiographers with experience in mammography. The chi-square test was used to perform statistical analysis.

Results: Results showed a statistically significant difference in the quality of mammograms before and after training for all criteria (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Self-evaluation and education of radiographers at the CHC Rijeka have led to a significant progress in image quality.

Implications for practice: Results of this work imply that there is a strong need to formalize breast imaging education and the need to implement systematic education at the national level in Croatia.