Radiation Protection Training in Spanish schools of medicine

Radiation Protection should be included in the programme of studies necessary to confer a bachelor's degree in Medicine, according to the Directive 97/43 Euratom on medical exposures and the Report RP116 published by the European commission on Education and Training in radiation protection for medical exposures. To analyse the present training programmes in radiation protection at the Medical School in different Spanish Universities. The syllabus and the contents of the subjects including radiation protection issues in 27 Spanish Schools of Medicine have been revised. Radiation protection subjects are obligatory at present, only at the Schools of Medicine from Cantabria and Malaga. There is a group of Schools of Medicine where radiation protection is an optional matter with an extension of 4,5 credits (45 hours). It also exists some topics in radiation protection in subjects dealing with Medical Physics and General Radiology (with a range value from 1 to 10 hours), in 10 Schools of Medicine. A wide dispersion among the contents of different subjects and the hours of training allocated by the different School are found. It should be useful the harmonization of the programmes. (Author)