ESTRO 2025 - Abstract Book

S4281

RTT - Service evaluation, quality assurance and risk management

ESTRO 2025

301

Digital Poster Navigating the Journey: Insights into Why Individuals Pursue Therapeutic Radiography and the Effectiveness of Outreach and Recruitment Strategies. Jo K McNamara 1 , Jakub Thornley 1 , Zoe Grant 2 , Shannon Johnson 3 1 Radiotherapy & Oncology, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, United Kingdom. 2 Radiotherapy & Oncology, University of Suffolk, Ipswich, United Kingdom. 3 Radiotherapy, Somerset NHS Trust, Taunton, United Kingdom Purpose/Objective: There is a clear need to understand our national and local approaches to career outreach and recruitment, so we can develop effective practices for attracting and retaining the future therapeutic radiography (TR) workforce(1,2). This project explored how people learn about TR careers and the impact of outreach. It assesses the relative merits of different approaches and tools, in an aim to develop best-practice recommendations for career outreach and recruitment strategies. Material/Methods: A questionnaire was disseminated to all year 1 BSc Radiotherapy and Oncology students nationally within the first few weeks of commencing their course (September 2024). This ascertains how they found out about the role of a TR, what influenced them to apply for the course and what facilitated their decision to start the course. Results: The questionnaire results revealed that a majority of students found out about TR as a career through friends and family receiving cancer treatment. Those factors that led to students choosing a career in TR included the positive impact those staff had had on friends and family, open day conversations with staff and the use of social media presenting the career in a positive way. ‘Both my parents have had radiotherapy treatment and spoke highly of the staff and how they helped make them comfortable’ The three highest ranked decision-making factors for selecting TR were job security, job satisfaction and it being a caring role. 29% of respondent’s stated that social media played a part in their recruitment journey. With Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok being the platforms most utilised. Specific social media accounts were mentioned including Rad Chat, University websites and NHS Careers. The most impactful outreach activities included department open days and University open days. When asked how we can improve the visibility of the profession, three themes were statistically significant, use of media, use of social media and showing all elements of the role.