Walls Gerard, McAleer James J, Hanna Gerard G
Centre for Cancer Research & Cell Biology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, N. Ireland
Cancer Centre, Belfast City Hospital, Belfast Health & Social Care Trust, Belfast, N. Ireland.
BMJ Open. 2020 May 27;10(5):e037171. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-037171.
Radiotherapy technology and postgraduate medical training have both evolved significantly over the last 20 years. Clinical Oncology is a recognised craft specialty where the apprenticeship model of clinical training is applicable. The challenges of learning radiotherapy in the modern radiotherapy department workplace have not been comprehensively described and no optimal method has been identified.
Five Clinical Oncology trainers and five Clinical Oncology trainees at a regional cancer centre will be invited to undertake a semistructured interview regarding their personal accounts of learning radiotherapy. Both trainees and consultants will be treated as equal co-investors in the process of radiotherapy learning, with the common shared aim of passing radiotherapy skills from trainers to trainees. Interviews will last up to 40 min. After transcription, an interpretative phenomenological analysis will be performed. All trainees and trainers at the same centre (n=34) will then be invited to complete the same purpose-built questionnaire. Four trainers and three trainees have piloted the questionnaire, and input was sought from the national leads of the biennial UK Clinical Oncology training survey. Significance testing will be performed on predefined questions and thematic analysis on white space questions.
Medical education research is evolving in Clinical Oncology and Radiation Oncology but there are few studies comprehensively assessing this from the viewpoint of trainees and trainers. Pending the success of the proposed study, the approach detailed represents a novel method that could be used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of radiotherapy training in other centres and settings. Ethical and governance approvals have been granted by the University Research Ethics Committee and the Integrated Research Application System, respectively. This study has been funded by Friends of the Cancer Centre.
在过去20年里，放射治疗技术和研究生医学培训都有了显著发展。临床肿瘤学是一个公认的需要临床培训学徒模式的专业领域。在现代放射治疗科工作场所学习放射治疗的挑战尚未得到全面描述，也未确定最佳方法。
将邀请某地区癌症中心的5名临床肿瘤学培训师和5名临床肿瘤学实习生就他们学习放射治疗的个人经历进行半结构化访谈。在放射治疗学习过程中，实习生和顾问都将被视为平等的共同参与者，共同目标是将放射治疗技能从培训师传授给实习生。访谈时长可达40分钟。转录后，将进行解释性现象学分析。然后将邀请同一中心的所有实习生和培训师（n = 34）完成同一特制问卷。4名培训师和3名实习生对问卷进行了预测试，并征求了英国临床肿瘤学两年一次培训调查的国家负责人的意见。将对预定义问题进行显著性检验，对留白问题进行主题分析。
医学教育研究在临床肿瘤学和放射肿瘤学领域不断发展，但从实习生和培训师的角度进行全面评估的研究很少。在本拟议研究取得成功之前，详细阐述的方法是一种可用于识别其他中心和环境中放射治疗培训优缺点的新方法。大学研究伦理委员会和综合研究应用系统已分别批准了伦理和管理许可。本研究由癌症中心之友资助。
