A Scoping Review of Radiation Oncology Educational and Career-Planning Interventions in Undergraduate Medical Education

Evaluation of a National Radiation Oncology Research and Mentorship Program

PURPOSE

The Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology Annual Scientific Meeting Medical Student Research and Mentorship Award was established in 2020 to support medical students pursuing radiation oncology (RO) research and RO as a career. This study is an evaluation of the effect of this national research and mentorship award on medical students, resident mentors, and research supervisors over 3 iterations.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

Three separate surveys were created for medical student mentees, RO resident mentors, and attending research supervisors. These surveys were developed using best practice strategies for medical education surveys and circulated for peer review among experts in oncology medical education. The surveys were sent to the 52 individuals (18 students, 18 residents, 16 supervisors) who participated in 3 cycles of Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology ASM MSRMA (2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23). After anonymization, quantitative answers were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and narrative responses were evaluated using a grounded theory approach.

RESULTS

There was a 90% survey response rate. For medical student mentees, the award maintained (71%) or increased (24%) interest in pursuing an RO career. Students reported receiving helpful tips for residency applications and insight into RO residency, research, and career planning advice. Only the first student cohort currently has matching results for residency, with approximately 50% matching to RO. All resident mentor respondents felt the program either maintained or increased motivation to mentor students in RO. Research project supervisors unanimously enjoyed their role in this program and would recommend and participate in this program again.

CONCLUSIONS

A national research and mentorship award for medical students has shown a positive effect on participants. Medical students felt this award program motivated them to continue pursuing oncology research and a potential career in RO. The program also enhanced mentorship skills in residents and research supervisors, which encourages further RO mentorship, teaching, and exposure for future generations of students.

Development and evaluation of an extra-curricular programme focussing on high impact career opportunities for medical professionals

BACKGROUND

Many medical professionals seek to do good through their careers, which may involve pursuing non-clinical options such as research, policy, or education in addition to clinical work. Working out which paths will lead to the largest social impact is a challenging question and of interest to many doctors. However, there are few, if any, services that use an impact-oriented framework to support doctors who want to make career decisions based on impact.

OBJECTIVES

To describe the development of an 8-week fellowship programme to introduce medical professionals to careers paths and focus areas which could lead to a particularly large social impact. And to evaluate the programme in terms of engagement, utility, changes in knowledge and career attitudes of participants.

METHODS

The ADDIE instructional design model was used to design and evaluate this fellowship programme. An 8-week curriculum was designed by medical professionals and delivered to medical students and doctors around the world utilising a flipped learning style. Quantitative and qualitative data on the programme were collected and analysed.

RESULTS

There was more demand for the programme than anticipated. We found that the fellowship was engaging and useful to medical students and doctors. It resulted in an increase in knowledge and skills on how to consider impact in one's own career and a change in participants' attitudes and behaviours, with some participants making changes to their career and charitable giving following the programme.

CONCLUSIONS

We believe an impact-orientated, practical co-curricular programme is valuable to medical professionals exploring impactful career options and there is demand for further programmes in this space.

Education in Radiation Oncology-Current Challenges and Difficulties

The evolution and development of radiotherapy in the last two decades has meant that postgraduate medical training has not kept up with this rapid progress both in terms of multidisciplinary clinical approaches and especially in terms of technological advances. Education in radiation oncology is a major priority in the context of the rapid development of radiotherapy, including advanced knowledge of radiobiology, radiation physics and clinical oncology, anatomy, tumor biology and advanced medical imaging. In this context, the lack of training in radiation oncology in the curricula of medical faculties may have detrimental consequences for the training of residents in radiotherapy but also in their choice of specialty after completing their university studies. There is a clear gap between resident physicians’ actual and required knowledge of radiotherapy, and this requires urgent remediation. In the context of technical advances in imaging-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and new radiobiology data, a balanced approach divided equally between general oncology, clinical radiation oncology, radiation oncology technology, medical physics and radiobiology, anatomy and multimodal imaging, including mentorship could bring educational and career choice benefits for students of radiation oncology.