ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S5758

RTT - Education, training, advanced practice and role developments

ESTRO 2024

643

Proffered Paper

Prescribing practices of therapeutic radiographers for medicines in the United Kingdom

Karen T Crowther 1,2 , Sonyia McFadden 1 , Nicola Carey 3 , Karen Stenner 4 , Ciara Hughes 1

1 Ulster University, School of Nursing and Health Research, Belfast, United Kingdom. 2 Accuray, Incoroprate, Sunnyvale, USA. 3 University of The Highlands And Islands, Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Inverness, United Kingdom. 4 University of Surrey, School of Health Sciences, Guildford, United Kingdom

Purpose/Objective:

In the United Kingdom, therapeutic radiographers (TRs) have been granted the authority to prescribe medication since 2005. This change was implemented to enhance patient care and healthcare efficiency. However, there is a paucity of literature regarding incorporating non-medical prescribing (NMP) practices into radiotherapy departments. To address this gap, a survey was conducted to gather data on the prescribing practices of TRs in the UK.

Material/Methods:

A previously piloted online survey was conducted using Qualtrics to describe the NMP TR services in the UK. The survey consisted of open and closed-response questions. This survey was used in two studies: the TRADiP study, exploring NMP by TRs in England and as part of a Ph.D. study, exploring the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (NI). Ethical approval for the studies was obtained from the University of Surrey for England and Ulster University for the devolved administrations. The NMP TRs were contacted through the Prescribing Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Society of Radiographers (SoR), and other methods like snowballing and social media were employed to engage participants. Data from England was collected between 2019 and 2021, while data from the devolved administrations was collected between January and June 2022. The data collected from both studies have been combined and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and IBM® SPSS® Statistics version 28. Drug categorisation was based on the British National Formulary (BNF) 85, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain 2023. Open-ended responses were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results:

A total of 74 NMP TRs responded to the survey. As shown in Table 1, the data reveals that the majority of respondents, 73% (n=54), were based in England, followed by 9.5% (n=7) from Wales, and 9.5% (n=7) from NI and 8% (n=6) from Scotland.