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Oncology and Radiation Oncology Awareness in Final Year Medical Students in Australia and New Zealand

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Abstract

This study aimed to determine final year students’ core oncology and radiation oncology knowledge and attitudes about the quality of teaching in medical programmes delivered in Australia and New Zealand. Does the modern medical programme provide core oncology skills in this leading global cause of mortality and morbidity? An online survey was distributed between April and June 2018 and completed by 316 final year students across all 21 medical schools with final year cohorts in Australia and New Zealand. The survey examined teaching and clinical exposure, attitudes and core knowledge for oncology and radiation oncology. Several questions from a survey done of graduates in 2001 were repeated for comparison. We found that clinical exposure to oncology and its disciplines is low. Students rated oncology and haematology the worst taught medical specialties at medical school. Students reported the most confidence identifying when surgical management of cancer may be indicated and much lower levels of confidence identifying when systemic therapy and radiation therapy may be helpful. The majority of students had no formal course content on radiation therapy and more than one third of final year students erroneously believed that external beam radiation therapy turned patients radioactive. Exposure to oncology practice and the teaching of core oncology knowledge remains low for medical students in Australia and New Zealand. Many areas of oncology teaching and knowledge have worsened for medical students in Australia and New Zealand over the past 20 years. Well-established gaps in the core oncology knowledge of medical graduates must be urgently addressed given the increasing incidence of cancer and ongoing underutilisation of radiation therapy in particular.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the medical student societies and medical faculties that helped distribute this survey. RANZCR provided access to SurveyMonkey.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Benjamin D. Bravery

  2. School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Kate Shi

  3. Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Luke Nicholls

  4. School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Luke Nicholls

  5. Liverpool Cancer Therapy Centre, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Revadhi Chelvarajah

  6. Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital, Waratah, New South Wales, Australia

    Minh Thi Tieu

  7. University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia

    Minh Thi Tieu, Sandra Turner & Apsara Windsor

  8. Crown Princess Mary Cancer Centre, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Sandra Turner

  9. Faculty of Radiation Oncology, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Apsara Windsor

  10. Central Coast Cancer Centre, Gosford, New South Wales, Australia

    Apsara Windsor

Authors
  1. Benjamin D. Bravery
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  2. Kate Shi
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  3. Luke Nicholls
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  4. Revadhi Chelvarajah
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  5. Minh Thi Tieu
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  6. Sandra Turner
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  7. Apsara Windsor
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Benjamin D. Bravery or Apsara Windsor.

Ethics declarations

This study was approved by Human Research Ethics Committee, Central Coast Local Health District. Data were collected from 27 April–24 June 2018.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Bravery, B.D., Shi, K., Nicholls, L. et al. Oncology and Radiation Oncology Awareness in Final Year Medical Students in Australia and New Zealand. J Canc Educ 35, 1227–1236 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-019-01586-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-019-01586-3

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