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Exploring Attitudes of Canadian Radiation Oncologists, Radiation Therapists, Physicists, and Oncology Nurses Regarding Interprofessional Teaching and Learning

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Abstract

The purposes of this exploratory study were to investigate the attitudes of radiation oncology professionals regarding interprofessional (IP) teaching and interprofessional education (IPE), to identify the challenges faced by radiation oncologists who teach within an IP context, and to discover new strategies to aid professionals teaching IP students. A questionnaire was developed through the review of existing literature on IPE using Medline. The proposed group of questions was selected by educators from different professions actively involved in IPE. The final revised questionnaire consisted of three main domains assessing the understanding of IP concepts, attitudes toward IP teaching and learning environments, and attitudes toward health-care teams. An open-ended comment section was included. The questionnaire was administered to health-care professionals (physicists, radiation oncologists, and radiation therapists) nationally through SurveyMonkey® (electronic survey). A total of 220 respondents provided demographic information. Half of these respondents indicated that they previously received education relating to IPE. A high level of agreement was received for nearly all the questions. There were no significant statistical differences among the three different professional respondent groups for any question. Overall, most of the respondents demonstrated a good knowledge and understanding of IP concepts and advocated IP training and collaboration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2075 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, ON, M4N 3 M5, Canada

    Kaitlin Koo & Ewa Szumacher

  2. Department of Radiation Therapy, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada

    Lisa Di Prospero & Merrylee McGuffin

  3. Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Canada

    Ruth Barker & Ewa Szumacher

  4. Centre for Interprofessional Education, University of Toronto, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada

    Lynne Sinclair

  5. TDSB Experiential Learning: Cooperative Education Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada

    Alita Ng

Authors
  1. Kaitlin Koo
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  2. Lisa Di Prospero
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  3. Ruth Barker
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  4. Lynne Sinclair
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  5. Merrylee McGuffin
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  6. Alita Ng
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  7. Ewa Szumacher
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ewa Szumacher.

Additional information

This study was presented at the Collaborating Across Borders IV Conference on June 12–14, 2013 in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

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Koo, K., Di Prospero, L., Barker, R. et al. Exploring Attitudes of Canadian Radiation Oncologists, Radiation Therapists, Physicists, and Oncology Nurses Regarding Interprofessional Teaching and Learning. J Canc Educ 29, 350–357 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-014-0614-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-014-0614-1

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