Situation of young radiation oncologists, medical physicists and radiation biologists in German-speaking countries : Results from a web-based survey of the Young DEGRO working group

Balancing barriers: Family, career, and gender equality in radiation oncology and radiation research-An interdisciplinary prospective survey among the young workforce

PURPOSE

There is an urgent need to recruit and retain young professionals in radiation oncology and radiation research as the healthcare system faces major challenges. Our study investigated the experiences and needs of young professionals in this field, focusing on the impact of unpaid care work and gender-related issues.

METHODS

A web-based survey was created and distributed over a six-week period, featuring one general questionnaire along with three occupation-specific versions tailored for physicians, biologists, and medical physicists involved in radiation oncology and research.

RESULTS

Most participants with care responsibilities have temporary contracts, especially female physicians and biologists, while female medical physicists are more likely to hold permanent positions. Research is often conducted outside regular hours, with limited cover arrangements and part-time options varying by field. Key career risks include economic pressure, work-life balance, and uncertain contracts, with employees with care duties feeling less supported overall. In addition, men seem to be more involved in care work and thus face unique challenges, such as insufficient career support and fears of poor future perspective. The study emphasizes the need for strategies to address relevant issues, such as flexible working arrangements, better mentoring support, and clear substitution policies that can ensure that young professionals can balance caring responsibilities with work and career demands.

CONCLUSION

Addressing these challenges is critical for sustaining a diverse and qualified workforce in radiation oncology and radiation research, ensuring excellence in patient care and scientific progress.

German radiation oncology's next generation: a web-based survey of young biologists, medical physicists, and physicians-from problems to solutions

BACKGROUND

Radiation science is of utmost significance not only due to its growing importance for clinical use, but also in everyday life such as in radiation protection questions. The expected increase in cancer incidence due to an aging population combined with technical advancements further implicates this importance and results in a higher need for sufficient highly educated and motivated personnel. Thus, factors preventing young scientists and medical personnel from entering or remaining in the field need to be identified.

METHODS

A web-based questionnaire with one general and three occupation-specific questionnaires for physicians, biologists, and medical physicists working in radiation oncology and research was developed and circulated for 6 weeks.

RESULTS

While the overall satisfaction of the 218 participants was quite high, there are some points that still need to be addressed in order to ensure a continuing supply of qualified personnel. Among these were economic pressure, work-life balance, work contracts, protected research time, and a demand for an improved curriculum.

CONCLUSION

Mentoring programs, improved education, and strengthening the value of societies in radiation sciences as well as translational approaches and more flexible working arrangements might ensure a high-quality workforce and thus patient care in the future.

The Italian young medical physicist scenario: Results from the young AIFM group survey

PURPOSE

The young working group of the Italian Association of Medical and Health Physics (AIFM) designed a survey to assess the current situation of the under 35 AIFM members.

METHODS

An online survey including 65 questions was designed to gather personal information, educational issues, working and research experience, and to evaluate the AIFM activities. The survey was distributed to the under 35 members between November 2022 and February 2023, through the young AIFM mailing list and social media.

RESULTS

160 answers from 230 affiliates (70%, 31 years median age) were obtained. The results highlighted that 87% of the respondents had a fixed term/permanent employment, mainly in public hospitals (58%). Regarding Medical Physicists (MPs) training, 54% of the students left their region of origin due to the training plan (40%) and the availability of scholarships (25%) in the chosen university. Most of the respondents have no Radiation Protection Expert title, while the remaining 20%, 6%, and 3% are qualified to the first, second, and third level, respectively. Several young MPs (62.2%) were involved in research activities; however, only 28% had teaching experience, mainly within their workplace (20%, safety courses), during AIFM courses (4%), or university lectures (3%).

CONCLUSIONS

This survey reported the current situation of the under 35 AIFM members, highlighting the "brain drain" phenomenon from the south to the north of Italy, mainly due to the lack of post-graduate schools, scholarships, and job opportunities. The obtained results will help the future working program of the AIFM.

[Is there an unmet need to establish a young talent section "Young DGN" within the German Society of Nuclear Medicine (DGN)? - Results of a 2021/2022 web-based survey among German Nuclear Medicine professionals]

AIM

In various medical societies, dedicated young talent sections provide an important basis for promoting young members. However, the German Society of Nuclear Medicine (DGN) had not yet implemented such a section. Therefore, the aim of this work was to assess the opinion of nuclear medicine professionals in Germany on establishing a young talent section within the DGN ("Young DGN").

METHODS

An initiative group of young DGN members developed a survey questionnaire comprising 18 questions. The questionnaire was initially sent as a PDF to the members of the DGN University Committee (Hochschulausschuss) by e-mail on 10/12/2021. As an online survey, the questionnaire was then emailed at four additional time points between 12/23/2021 and 3/18/2022 via the DGN eBrief and on 2/23/2022 to the members of the mailing list of the Berufsverband Deutscher Nuklearmediziner (BDN).

RESULTS

The survey closed on 3/31/2022 with 111 responses (n=104 online surveys, n=7 PDFs). The median age of participants was 32.5 years (range, 20-80). 86% of participants indicated that they were interested in a Young DGN section, of which 67% were willing to participate. 79% indicated that nuclear medicine was an exciting field for them. 96% expressed interest in additional education offers and 60% in the establishment of a mentoring program. 75% believed that Young DGN would improve the visibility of the specialty.

CONCLUSION

The survey results indicate strong support for the establishment of a young talent section within the DGN among nuclear medicine professionals in Germany. A large proportion of those who participated in the survey would envision active involvement. There was a particular consensus on the desire to expand the range of education and training activities.

Current status and developments of German curriculum-based residency training programmes in radiation oncology

Purpose

The current status of German residency training in the field of radiation oncology is provided and compared to programmes in other countries. In particular, we present the DEGRO-Academy within the international context.

Methods

Certified courses from 2018 and 2019 were systematically assigned to the DEGRO-Curriculum, retrospectively for 2018 and prospectively for 2019. In addition, questionnaires of course evaluations were provided, answered by course participants and collected centrally.

Results

Our data reveal a clear increase in curriculum coverage by certified courses from 57.6% in 2018 to 77.5% in 2019. The analyses enable potential improvements in German curriculum-based education. Specific topics of the DEGRO-Curriculum are still underrepresented, while others decreased in representation between 2018 and 2019. It was found that several topics in the DEGRO-Curriculum require more attention because of a low DEGRO-curriculum coverage. Evaluation results of certified courses improved significantly with a median grade of 1.62 in 2018 to 1.47 in 2019 (p = 0.0319).

Conclusion

The increase of curriculum coverage and the simultaneous improvement of course evaluations are promising with respect to educational standards in Germany. Additionally, the early integration of radiation oncology into medical education is a prerequisite for resident training because of rising demands on quality control and increasing patient numbers. This intensified focus is a requirement for continued high standards and quality of curriculum-based education in radiation oncology both in Germany and other countries.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13014-021-01785-7.

Quality of teaching radiation oncology in Germany-where do we stand? : Results from a 2019 survey performed by the working group "young DEGRO" of the German Society of Radiation Oncology

Purpose

Medical students’ knowledge of radiation oncology (RO) is of increasing importance with a rising prevalence of malignancies. However, RO teaching in medical schools is heterogeneous and has not been analyzed at a federal level yet. Therefore, the following survey aims to provide a national overview of RO teaching in Germany.

Methods

A questionnaire containing multiple-choice and free-text questions covering the extent and topics of RO teaching was sent to RO departments of all university hospitals in Germany and was answered by the heads of department/main lecturers.

Results

24/35 (68.6%) RO departments returned completed forms. Most faculties employ lectures (91.7%), seminars (87.5%), and practical/bedside training (75.0%), whereas training in radiation biology and medical physics are rare (25% and 33.3%, respectively). Main topics covered are general RO (100%), radiation biology (91.7%), and side effects (87.5%). Regarding RO techniques and concepts, image-guided and intensity-modulated radiotherapy are taught at all faculties, followed by palliative and stereotactic techniques (87.5% each). Notably, all departments offered at least a partial rotation in RO in conjunction with radiology and/or nuclear medicine departments in the last year of medical school, while only 70.8% provided a complete rotation in RO. In addition, 57.1% of the departments have taken measures concerning the upcoming National Competence-Based Learning Objectives Catalogue (NKLM) for medical education.

Conclusion

RO plays an integral but underrepresented role in clinical medical education in Germany, but faces new challenges in the development of practical and competence-based education, which will require further innovative and interdisciplinary concepts.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1007/s00066-020-01623-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Successful integration of radiation oncology in preclinical medical education : Experiences with an interdisciplinary training project

PURPOSE

Modern impartation of both anatomic and radiation oncology (RO) knowledge in medical education enables a transfer of preclinical knowledge to clinical practice, which may be addressed by multidisciplinary concepts. The faculty's "Anatomy and imaging" course attempts to integrate RO, radiology and nuclear medicine into the preclinical curriculum. The present analysis focuses on the description of the course concept and discusses the potential didactic impact of the implementation of RO.

METHODS

In total 5 semester cohorts have undertaken the course since the introduction of RO in the winter semester of 2015/2016 with 682 students participating. It is designed as a small group circuit training with a teaching content of 8 h daily. Course evaluation was performed on a 100-item Likert scale.

RESULTS

General evaluation showed an average of 9.3-12.7 on a Likert scale (0 being the best, 100 being the worst grade). Use of media, relevance for medical training, gain of interest in medicine in general and overall satisfaction with the course received excellent mean values. For RO, there was a high degree of consent with the following statements: "the course was well organized", "subjects and presentation were well-structured", "topics were well chosen", "the time for exercises was sufficient" and "teaching by student tutors and physicians was adequate".

CONCLUSION

The present evaluation demonstrates the feasibility of introducing RO in the preclinical part of medical education. The course concept shows excellent results in evaluation and may help in broadening RO knowledge and in recruiting new doctoral candidates and residents.

Quality of training in radiation oncology in Germany: where do we stand? : Results from a 2016/2017 survey performed by the working group "young DEGRO" of the German society of radiation oncology (DEGRO)

PURPOSE

To evaluate the current situation of young radiation oncologists in Germany with regard to the contents and quality of training and level of knowledge, as well as their working conditions and professional satisfaction.

METHODS

From June 2016 to February 2017, a survey was conducted by the young DEGRO (yDEGRO) using an online platform. The questionnaire consisted of 28 items examining a broad range of aspects influencing residency. There were 96 completed questionnaires RESULTS: 83% of participants stated to be very or mostly pleased with their residency training. Moderate working hours and a good colleagueship contribute to a comfortable working environment. Level of knowledge regarding the most common tumor sites (i.e. palliative indications, lung, head and neck, brain, breast, prostate) was pleasing. Radiochemotherapy embodies a cornerstone in training. Modern techniques such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and stereotactic procedures are now in widespread use. Education for rare indications and center-based procedures offers room for improvement.

CONCLUSION

Radiation oncology remains an attractive and versatile specialty with favorable working conditions. Continuing surveys in future years will be a valuable measuring tool to set further priorities in order to preserve and improve quality of training.