Integrating Radiation Plan Review into Radiation Oncology Curriculum: Single-Institution Experience

Abstract

Background Lack of residents' dedicated training and satisfaction with regard to radiation plan review was one of the major issues detected in our needs assessment at Indiana University. Therefore, a monthly session focusing on dosimetry and plan review for residents was added to our didactics. Methods This session was designed based on Kolb's cycle of experiential learning. All residents have been exposed to radiation plan review in clinic and during peer review (concrete experience). However, this session will emphasize on reflective observation and abstract conceptualization. Each month, we cover a specific disease site for the resident plan review session. Residents pick 3-4 radiation plans in advance. Each session begins by presenting the patient followed by plan review based on CB-CHOP acronym. Faculty are present to highlight the important aspects of plan review. Dosimetrists are sometimes present to explain the steps needed to design the plan. If there is a plan that was not approved by faculty, that plan will also be reviewed to highlight the issues and familiarize residents with less optimal plans. This session gives residents the opportunity to actively participate and ask questions, a factor that can be missing in departmental peer review sessions. Results This curriculum change was implemented in January 2021 at Indiana University and is in effect. There are 7 residents in our program and our evaluation has shown than all believe that this addition to the curriculum has improved their understanding of different steps of plan review and has increased their confidence to evaluate plans independently. It has been highlighted that the presence of dosimetrists and their detailed explanation of plan design has also helped them understand the process better. They all agree that this session should be continued in the future. Discussion Integrating plan review in our curriculum has resulted in increased confidence and satisfaction of residents regarding radiation plan review. We are currently working on the fourth part of Kolb's cycle which is active experimentation to actively involve residents and will ask our faculty and dosimetrists to provide feedback about residents' ability to review plans. As our next step, we would like to collaborate with other institutes to design a plan review curriculum. We also look forward to collaboration with dosimetrists and physicists to help us design scenarios and plans that require improvements. Lack of residents' dedicated training and satisfaction with regard to radiation plan review was one of the major issues detected in our needs assessment at Indiana University. Therefore, a monthly session focusing on dosimetry and plan review for residents was added to our didactics. This session was designed based on Kolb's cycle of experiential learning. All residents have been exposed to radiation plan review in clinic and during peer review (concrete experience). However, this session will emphasize on reflective observation and abstract conceptualization. Each month, we cover a specific disease site for the resident plan review session. Residents pick 3-4 radiation plans in advance. Each session begins by presenting the patient followed by plan review based on CB-CHOP acronym. Faculty are present to highlight the important aspects of plan review. Dosimetrists are sometimes present to explain the steps needed to design the plan. If there is a plan that was not approved by faculty, that plan will also be reviewed to highlight the issues and familiarize residents with less optimal plans. This session gives residents the opportunity to actively participate and ask questions, a factor that can be missing in departmental peer review sessions. This curriculum change was implemented in January 2021 at Indiana University and is in effect. There are 7 residents in our program and our evaluation has shown than all believe that this addition to the curriculum has improved their understanding of different steps of plan review and has increased their confidence to evaluate plans independently. It has been highlighted that the presence of dosimetrists and their detailed explanation of plan design has also helped them understand the process better. They all agree that this session should be continued in the future. Integrating plan review in our curriculum has resulted in increased confidence and satisfaction of residents regarding radiation plan review. We are currently working on the fourth part of Kolb's cycle which is active experimentation to actively involve residents and will ask our faculty and dosimetrists to provide feedback about residents' ability to review plans. As our next step, we would like to collaborate with other institutes to design a plan review curriculum. We also look forward to collaboration with dosimetrists and physicists to help us design scenarios and plans that require improvements.