Teaching the Teacher: The Impact of a Workshop Developed for Radiation Therapists

Rachel L Moline; Marnie Peacock; Karen Moline

doi:10.1016/j.jmir.2018.02.003

Teaching the Teacher: The Impact of a Workshop Developed for Radiation Therapists

J Med Imaging Radiat Sci. 2018 Jun;49(2):179-186. doi: 10.1016/j.jmir.2018.02.003. Epub 2018 Mar 26.

Authors

Rachel L Moline¹, Marnie Peacock², Karen Moline³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: rmoline@uoguelph.ca.
² Department of Radiation Therapy, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
³ Department of Radiation Therapy, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Faculty of Medicine, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

PMID: 32074036
DOI: 10.1016/j.jmir.2018.02.003

Abstract

Introduction: Enhancing the teaching skills of radiation therapists is of benefit to both students and therapists and is ultimately important for patient outcomes. However, there is a paucity of evidence-based interventions for improving the teaching skills of radiation therapists. An intervention was developed to tackle this initiative. In accordance with a local, quality improvement initiative, a two-part workshop was developed for radiation therapists to improve their ability to (1) effectively communicate with students, (2) provide meaningful feedback to students, (3) increase consistency in conducting competency assessments, and (4) increase an understanding of cultural competency as it pertains to both teaching and health care more broadly.

Methods: Participants included 67 radiation therapists (18 males and 49 females) currently working at an urban, tertiary care center in Ontario. Not all therapists attended both the workshops (48 attended both workshops, 67 attended A only, and 49 attended B only). The sessions were divided into workshop A, targeting communication and evaluation, and workshop B, targeting competency assessment and cultural competency. Self-report questionnaires assessing clinician ratings of their confidence in these skills were administered before workshop A and B, after workshop A and B, and at a follow-up after 75 days. For radiation therapists who completed the questionnaire at all three time points, changes in their confidence ratings were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) before workshop, after workshop, and at follow-up (for workshop A: n = 29 and for workshop B: n = 24). It was hypothesized that teaching skills of communication and evaluation would improve after workshop A. Similarly, teaching skills of competency assessment and cultural competency would both improve after workshop B.

Results: All four repeated measures ANOVAs indicated significant improvements in clinician self-assessment in the four teaching skills targeted in the workshops.

Discussion: Radiation therapists reported being significantly more confident in their teaching skills after the intervention.

Conclusion: There is preliminary evidence for the efficacy of this teaching intervention in improving the confidence of radiation therapists in the assessed skills.

Keywords: Radiation therapy; clinical teaching skills; communication; competency assessment; cultural competency; feedback.