ESTRO meets Asia 2024 - Abstract Book

S122

Interdisciplinary – Education in radiation oncology

ESTRO meets Asia 2024

Impact of workflow development and trainings on addressing staff fear to implement brachytherapy

Basma MBAREK, Tin Phang duc tin, ha thu Huynh Nguyen, THAO VO

oncology, FV hospital, HCMC, Vietnam

Purpose/Objective:

Brachytherapy was recently implemented in the oncology department in the Franco-Vietnamese hospital in HCMC. This brachytherapy unit is the second brachytherapy facility in HCMC which counts over 10 million habitants and the first private sector brachytherapy facility implementing Brachytherapy is challenging as experience in this field and trainings are limited (1). . Both clinical and non-clinical staff working in the department had no previous experience in this technique. The aim of this study was first to evaluate how the staff was approaching the implementation of the brachytherapy technique and evaluate their apprehension and fears. The second step of the study was to evaluate the impact of both developing a department specific workflow and conducting training programs on addressing these apprehensions

Material/Methods:

Semi conducted interviews and written questionnaires were conducted at two occasions with 23 clinical and non clinical staff. The interviewed staff were both junior and senior radiation oncologists (3) , junior and senior physicists (3), dosimetrists (2), radiation technicians (6), nurses (5) , mid-management staff (2), navigating nurses (2). . The first evaluation was done shortly after the announcement of the implementation of the brachytherapy project. The same interviews and questionnaires were conducted a second time with the same staff members once a department specific workflow was developed and shared with the team and the different trainings were finished. Training courses were in house trainings, vendor trainings and on site trainings in other centers with similar equipment’s and close workflow organizations both in Vietnam and overseas. These trainings included both theoretical background and real world application. Once the trainings completed, a specific workflow was developed and tailored to our specific needs and means. The working groups that developed the workflow included stakeholders with representatives from all clinical and non-clinical staff. The initial and second semi conducted interviews and written questionnaires were analyzed using thematic analysis The initial semi-conducted interviews and written questionnaires revealed high levels of apprehension among all staff members. The apprehension was higher among clinical staff than non-clinical staff. Apprehension regarding radiation safety accidents was higher among radiographers and radiographers’ management team regardless of age and gender. Lack of knowledge was a major concern among radiation oncologists, physicists and dosimetrists. The lack of manpower and increase in workload was a common fear across all clinical and non clinical staff. All interviewed staff members scored their readiness to implementation very low (average score 3/10) and their apprehension to the implementation above 5/10. When the same staff members were interviewed after workflow development and Trainings’ completion their apprehension was significantly reduced ( mean score 3/10) and readiness scores improved (7/10). The workflow development had a big impact on reducing apprehension within both clinical and non-clinical staff. The impact was mostly remarkable among the radiotherapy technicians group. Apprehension related to radiation safety and emergency procedures shifted from the radiation technician group to gain the physicist group. The thematic analysis revealed increased motivation and more sense of benefit to patients at the second interview. This was also found in similar conducted studies (2). Results:

Conclusion: