ESTRO 2021 Abstract Book

S225

ESTRO 2021

effectiveness of teaching programs. This process can support continuous professional development.

OC-0315 Qualitative evaluation of the role of RTTs IGRT specialists and their influence on treatment quality F. Sousa 1 , M. Somoano 1 , Y. Jourani 2 , D. Van Gestel 1 1 Institut Jules Bordet - Université Libre de Bruxelles, Radiation Oncology Department, Brussels, Belgium; 2 Institut Jules Bordet - Université Libre de Bruxelles, Medical Physics Department, Brussels, Belgium Purpose or Objective The latest Belgian Radiation Oncology clinical audits pointed out a lack of training and professional development of Belgian radiation therapists (RTTs). This is mainly due to the lack of sufficient and dedicated training programs for RTTs working in radiotherapy as the Belgian law only requires a nursing degree without supplementary radiotherapy specific training (except 50 hours of radioprotection training) to handle radiotherapy machines/treatments. In our Radiation Oncology department, we have developed a strategic plan to minimise training differences and to keep all of the RTT staff constantly up-to-date on current practices and innovations. In 2017, the following RTT profiles were developed: RTT Research, RTT head of treatment station and RTT image guided radiotherapy specialist (RTT spIGRT). The aim of this study is to investigate how RTTs spIGRT experience their role and whether they have an impact on the quality of the patient’s treatment. Materials and Methods Eleven RTTs, i.e. six RTTs spIGRT (participants (P) 1-6) and five RTTs not specialised in IGRT (RTTs noIGRT) (participants 7-11), were interviewed during October and November 2020. RTTs noIGRT having knowledge of the daily practice before and after the creation of this RTT spIGRT role, served as control group capable of weighing its impact on the work environment. A qualitative method using face-to-face semi-structured questionnaires was used. The first part of the questionnaire collects general information on the participants. The second part consists of open questions specific for both groups, allowing them to share their views and to raise other relevant issues not covered by the questionnaires. Interviews lasted approximately 10 to 20 min. The verbatim transcriptions were made using Sonix (Sonix Inc, San Francisco, CA, USA), an automated transcription software. All proposed transcripts were then reviewed and corrected. Finally, interviews were coded and analysed for thematic content. Results Table 1 summarises the participants’ characteristics.

After searching for patterns in the codes across the different interviews, the themes were reviewed (based on the topic list used to build the questionnaires) and refined resulting in adapted main and sub-codes (table 2).