Fostering a culture of interprofessional education for radiation therapy and medical dosimetry students

Charlotte Lavender, Seth Miller, Jessica Church, Ronald C. Chen, Petronella A. Muresan, Robert D. Adams

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

A less-studied aspect of radiation therapy and medical dosimetry education is experiential learning through attendance at interprofessional conferences. University of North Carolina radiation therapy and medical dosimetry students regularly attended morning conferences and daily pretreatment peer review, including approximately 145 hours of direct interaction with medical attending physicians and residents, medical physicists, and other faculty. We herein assessed the effect of their participation in these interprofessional conferences on knowledge and communication. The students who graduated from our radiation therapy and medical dosimetry programs who were exposed to the interprofessional education initiative were compared with those who graduated in the previous years. The groups were compared with regard to their knowledge (as assessed by grades on end-of-training examinations) and team communication (assessed via survey). The results for the 2 groups were compared via exact tests. There was a trend for the examination scores for the 2012 cohort to be higher than for the 2007 to 2011 groups. Survey results suggested that students who attended the interprofessional education sessions were more comfortable speaking with attending physicians, residents, physicists, and faculty compared with earlier students who did not attend these educational sessions. Interprofessional education, particularly vertical integration, appears to provide an enhanced educational experience both in regard to knowledge (per the examination scores) and in building a sense of communication (via the survey results). Integration of interprofessional education into radiation therapy and medical dosimetry educational programs may represent an opportunity to enrich the learning experience in multiple ways and merits further study.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)50-53
Number of pages4
JournalMedical Dosimetry
Volume39
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Education
  • Interprofessional education
  • Medical dosimetry

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Radiological and Ultrasound Technology
  • Oncology
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging

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