Management of radioactive spills in nuclear medicine: Teaching and assessing with OSATS (objectively structured assessment of technical skills)

Learning Objectives By the end of this paper the readers will have learnt how to use "OSTAS" (objective structured assessment of technical skills), for the teaching and assessment of the learning of the protocol for “Radioactive Spill Management”. It involves the use of a simple checklist (OSAT checklist), that teaches as well as evaluates learning. This checklist may act as a tool for formative learning and assessment or may be used to certify the learning objective for credentialing purposes.

Routine work in nuclear medicine requires the careful elution of radioactivity and its subsequent, storage and handling. Though all effort is maintained to prevent any “spill” of this radioactivity, accidents are bound to happen. The response to this spill is a methodically worked out plan that is written and adopted as a “standard operating procedure” (SOP). This protocol is taught to all involved in the area of working as a mock drill/apprenticeship model. No formal evaluation of the learning is in place except for the mock drills. The OSATS is a variation on the OSCE, or Objective Structured Clinical Examination which is a form of workplace based assessment. The OSATS is cited in the ACGME Evaluation Toolbox on the website as the most desirable evaluation tool for the Patient Care topics. It is the objective of this paper is to introduce the "OSATS" for the teaching, and assessment of the learning, of the protocol for the management of radioactive spill. As a review of the literature on the subject failed to reveal any such teaching protocol/material/document for this important technical skill, we hope that it may act as a landmark for the development of teaching and assessment of other technical skills also.