Abstract
BackgroundPhysicians and physicists are expected to contribute to patient safety and quality improvement (QI) in Radiation Oncology (RO), but prior studies suggest that training for this may be inadequate. RO and medical physics (MP) program directors (PDs) were surveyed to better understand the current patient safety/QI training in their residency programs.MethodsPDs were surveyed via email in January 2017. Survey questions inquired about current training, curriculum elements, and barriers to development and/or improvement of safety and QI training.ResultsEighty-nine RO PDs and 84 MP PDs were surveyed, and 21 RO PDs (28%) and 31 MP PDs (37%) responded. Both RO and MP PDs had favorable opinions of current safety and QI training, and used a range of resources for program development, especially safety and QI publications. Various curriculum elements were reported. Curriculum elements used by RO and MP PDs were similar, except RO were more likely than MP PDs to implement morbidity and mortality (M&M) conference (72% vs. 45%, p < 0.05). RO and MP PDs similarly cited various barriers, but RO PDs were more likely to cite lack of experience than MP PDs (40% vs. 16%, p < 0.05). PDs responded similarly independent of whether they reported using a departmental incident learning system (ILS) or not.ConclusionsPDs view patient safety/QI as an important part of resident education. Most PDs agreed that residents are adequately exposed to patient safety/QI and prepared to meet the patient safety/QI expectations of clinical practice. This conflicts with other independent studies that indicate a majority of residents feel their patient safety/QI training is inadequate and lacks formal exposure to QI tools.
Highlights
Physicians and physicists are expected to contribute to patient safety and quality improvement (QI) in Radiation Oncology (RO), but prior studies suggest that training for this may be inadequate
The vast majority of RO and medical physics (MP) Program Director (PD) (88% vs. 94%) reported that patient safety and QI are an important part of resident education
MP PDs were more likely than RO PDs to agree that residents in their program were enthusiastic about safety training (77% vs. 48%, Fig. 1b)
Summary
Physicians and physicists are expected to contribute to patient safety and quality improvement (QI) in Radiation Oncology (RO), but prior studies suggest that training for this may be inadequate. RO and medical physics (MP) program directors (PDs) were surveyed to better understand the current patient safety/QI training in their residency programs. Patient safety/quality improvement (QI) is recognized as an essential part of radiation oncology (RO) practice. Physicians and physicists are expected to contribute to patient safety/QI [1], and will be responsible for ensuring the safety of increasingly sophisticated and complex treatments [2] delivered in an environment where. This study conducted a national survey of PDs of RO and MP residency programs to better understand the current training, curriculum elements, and barriers to development of patient safety/QI training
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