Staffing Requirements in Radiation Medicine

Abstract

Through Technical Co-operation, the Division of Human Health at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is involved in assisting with the initiation, expansion and sustainability of radiation medicine services. An important component of this is staffing levels. There is very little documentation based on evidence that precisely quantifies the number and type of professional(s) needed to support a service and that is also directly related to patient workload, technology, technique, procedures and infrastructure. It was recognised that a tool is required which provides hospital managers with staffing guidelines that are transparent, flexible, that allow for an expansion of existing services, a broader range of modalities, emerging technologies, and in so doing, maintain safe, effective and quality patient care. This paper presents a preliminary overview of a set of models which aim to achieve this. Although the models for three main disciplines (Diagnostic Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Oncology) are different, they are all based on 1) an analysis of the tasks which need to be performed by the relevant staff as well as their duration and 2) on the clinical workload (number of examinations, procedures etc.). The three tools require the user to define the local working conditions and to estimate the workload, number of equipment and modalities, the number of procedures andjor the techniques to be employed within each specialty. The specific user inputs required for each discipline, e.g. number of procedures in radiology and nuclear medicine, or the number of patients treated per annum in radiation oncology, etc. is based on statistics that were considered to be readily available to users of the tool, or alternatively possible to estimate from other indicators like the patient population. The models are currently in the process of being validated against as wide a range of departments as possible.Keywordsstaffingradiologynuclear medicineradiotherapymedical physics