The Perceptions of Ontario Radiation Therapists and Their Managers Regarding Continuing Professional Development

Continuing professional development (CPD) is essential to maintaining a knowledgeable health care work force. Studies of many health care professionals link CPD to competence, motivation, and job satisfaction. There is little information about CPD in the field of radiation therapy. In addition, staff views on CPD have been well researched, but there is a lack of literature looking at the opinions of managers. This study examined the following questions: (1) Is there a disparity between the views of radiation therapists and their managers concerning support for continuing professional development? (2) Where does the responsibility for continuing professional development lie? (3) Are radiation therapists aware of the availability of support within their department? and (4) Is there a difference between the academic (university affiliated) versus nonacademic centres? A self-administered electronic questionnaire was sent to 14 Ontario cancer centres. Of the 700 radiation therapists surveyed, there were 161 completed e-mail replies, giving a total response rate of approximately 23%. The final number of respondents in the management category was 25. Results showed that although more radiation therapists than managers felt that the organization should be responsible for providing opportunities for CPD, more managers than radiation therapists felt that the organization did indeed provide time off to support CPD. An additional discovery in the area of organizational responsibility is that, although the nonmanagement staff results were similar in both the academic and nonacademic settings, the management results differed significantly. Conclusions and recommendations indicate the need to expand the definition of CPD, implement more transparent CPD policies and application processes, increase communication between managers and staff, and investigate the need for radiation therapist-specific research on clinical competence.