ESTRO 2023 - Abstract Book

S196

Saturday 13 May

ESTRO 2023

sexual assault. Thirty-eight percent of women felt that having a child had “extremely" or "very" impacted their career against 8.5% of men (p<0.001). Ten percent of women felt that there had been no change in gender equality compared to 1% of men (p<0.001). The most popular proposals for improvement were the "Creation of specific educational programs" (42% of women versus 22% of men, p<0.01), the creation of a "Network of women radiation oncologists" (41% versus 3.3%; p<0.001), and the "Addition of quotas in institutions, associations and key positions" (39% versus 10%; p<0.001). Conclusion This study is the first one establishing an inventory of the various discriminations experienced by radiation oncologists in France. Additionally, it has allowed us to identify the main obstacles met in their career by women and to analyze the factors that may explain these inequalities. We make a few propositions for improvement to guarantee the best working and training conditions, regardless of the origin and gender. OC-0259 Diversity, equity, and inclusion within radiation oncology in Europe: a qualitative study A. Abravan 1 , D. Correia 2 , A. Gasnier 3 , S. Shakhverdian 4 , T. van der Stok 4 , J. Bertholet 5 , L. Dubois 6 , B. Jereczek-Fossa 7 , M. Pepa 8 , M. Spalek 9 , S. Petit 10 , P. Franco 11 , V. Petit-Steeghs 4 1 The University of Manchester and The Christie Hospital, Division of Cancer Sciences, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health and Department of Radiotherapy Related Research, MANCHESTER, United Kingdom; 2 Cantonal Hospital Aarau, Department of Radiation Oncology, Aarau, Switzerland; 3 Centre Henri Becquerel, Department of Radiotherapy, Rouen, France; 4 Erasmus University, Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management Health Care Governance, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; 5 Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Division of Medical Radiation Physics and Department of Radiation Oncology, Inselspital , Bern, Switzerland; 6 Maastricht University, The M- Lab, Dept. of Precision Medicine, GROW – School for Oncology and Reproduction, Maastricht , The Netherlands; 7 University of Milan, Department of Oncology and Hemato-oncology, Milan, Italy; 8 European Institute of Oncology IRCCS, Division of Radiation Oncology, IEO, Milan, Italy; 9 Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Department of Soft Tissue/Bone Sarcoma and Melanoma, Warsaw, Poland; 10 Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, Erasmus University Medical Center, Department of Radiotherapy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; 11 University of Eastern Piedmont, Department of Translational Medicine, Novara, Italy Purpose or Objective The importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has become increasingly acknowledged within healthcare. Improving DEI leads to more inclusiveness for employees at their workplace which in return can lead to better work engagement, retention, and wellbeing. A recent project on DEI among radiation oncology (RO) professionals, highlighted low levels of inclusion and work engagement in Europe. As a follow-up study, a qualitative study was performed among RO professionals in Europe. Qualitative research methods can be used to explore causal relations as opposed to identifying correlations usually achieved by quantitative studies. The goal of the current qualitative study was to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms that explain the low levels of DEI experienced by RO professionals in Europe and propose recommendations to improve DEI within RO departments. Materials and Methods A qualitative research study was conducted that enrolled RO professionals from four selected European countries through an open call within the ESTRO platform. Great Britain, Italy, Poland, and Switzerland were specifically selected based on the high number of respondents who completed the initial survey (1). Differences in DEI scores from the initial survey, geographical location in Europe, and cultural traditions were also taken into consideration to capture the heterogeneity of the community. Respondents who filled in an online survey and met the inclusion criteria were invited for an online semi- structured interview. To learn specifically about low DEI situations, the following inclusion criteria were used: being a RO professional who experienced low DEI levels (answering more than 3 times ‘disagree’ in the survey question) and agreed on publishing data. Interview transcripts were analysed thematically with an abductive approach via concepts in relation to “DEI”, “work engagement”, “organisational culture” and “professional values”. Results Twenty-six respondents were interviewed (Table 1). The thematic analysis identified limited engagement at work when the personal values of RO professionals conflicted with dominant organisational values, thereby hampering DEI. Three types of value conflicts were found between personal vs. organisational values: 1) self-development vs. efficiency, 2) togetherness vs. competition, and 3) people-oriented vs. task-oriented values. Situations with low levels of DEI often showed an imbalance between these three doublets of organisational vs. personal values (Figure 1).