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. 2023 Sep 4;9(2):101372.
doi: 10.1016/j.adro.2023.101372. eCollection 2024 Feb.

Pilot Curriculum for Continued Professional Development of Radiation Oncology Nurses

Jay C Shiao  1 , Dexiang Gao  2 , Adam Mueller  3 , Douglas E Holt  4 , Marina Moskalenko  5 , Jennifer Zaccone  6 , Timothy V Waxweiler  6 , Tyler P Robin  6 , Sameer K Nath  6
Affiliations

Pilot Curriculum for Continued Professional Development of Radiation Oncology Nurses

Jay C Shiao et al. Adv Radiat Oncol. .

Abstract

Purpose: Limited structured educational programs are available for the continued professional development of radiation oncology nurses. In this study, we evaluated a pilot curriculum focusing on clinical workflow and toxicity management for radiation oncology nurses at a single university-affiliated medical center network.

Methods and materials: Based on a previous multi-institutional needs assessment, a targeted curriculum on clinical workflow and toxicity management was developed, including didactic lectures, written disease-specific toxicity management guidelines, and standardized medication/laboratory order preference lists in the electronic health record. An anonymized survey was circulated to all participants pre- and postcurriculum. The survey was composed of Likert-type subjective questions and 11 objective knowledge-based questions (KBQs). Paired Likert-type data were analyzed using Wilcoxon signed ranks test. Objective question data were compared with the McNamar's mid P test.

Results: Thirteen nurses participated in the pilot curriculum and 100% completed pre- and post curriculum surveys. After the didactics, nurses reported a significant increase in their understanding of the responsibilities of a nurse and overall process of care and their ability to explain computed tomography simulation, as well as their ability to assess, manage, and grade radiation-related toxicities (P < .01). There was significant improvement in the percent of correct answers on objective KBQs from a baseline of 52% to 80% after the curriculum (P < .01). Qualitatively, 70% (9/13) of nurses rated the curriculum as "extremely useful" and 30% (4/13) as "quite useful."

Conclusions: Our pilot curriculum using a combination of in-person formal didactics, toxicity management guidelines, and electronic health record based order preference lists was well-received and showed promising results on KBQ assessment. This work may be used to guide the development of larger curricula for nurse onboarding and continuing education in a multicenter setting.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pretest confidence by disease site as reported by participants.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Results of presurvey (solid colors) and postsurvey (patterned colors) answers to subjective self-assessment questions. ⁎⁎⁎Statistically significant.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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