Retaining therapy radiographers: What’s so special about us?

Abstract

High therapist vacancy rates and an unsatisfied workforce reduce the opportunity to meet waiting time targets or maintain high standards of care. Current vacancy rates may conceal true staff shortages because of financial pressures. Levels of job satisfaction among the therapy radiographer workforce are presently unknown. A multi-phase study to investigate job satisfaction of therapy radiographers in the United Kingdom is under way. Phase I was an interpretive grounded theory study and, as interviews progressed, a review of the literature on job satisfaction was warranted (in line with the principles of grounded theory). The purpose of this article is to evaluate the literature on job satisfaction as a way to inform the development of retention strategies within the radiotherapy profession. The discussion is focused under the following three themes identified from our phase I study: job design, leadership and organisational governance, stress and burnout. A number of models within the wider literature can inform retention strategies for radiotherapy managers. In particular, the job characteristics model and the model for job-specific well-being adequately identify factors that are relevant to the work of a therapy radiographer. Ensuring mental challenge through job design and continuing professional development opportunities is vital to retaining staff. Support from immediate managers is also a crucial aspect of workers development of intentions to leave. Manager support can moderate experiences of job stress, limiting job dissatisfaction and reducing leaving intentions. Stress and burnout have been cited as significant in reducing job satisfaction in health workers. In the United States, high levels of emotional exhaustion among radiation therapists highlight the potential for the development of burnout within the UK therapy workforce. The discussion looks at the importance of these characteristics within a general retention strategy and recommends future areas of study.

Radiation therapists' and radiation oncology medical physicists' perceptions of work and the working environment in Australia: a qualitative study

“…This increasing demand has intensified the focus on recruiting and retaining this workforce in Australia (Radiation Oncology Reform Implementation Committee [RORIC] 2011). Recruitment and retention of staff in radiation oncology has also been identified as an issue internationally (Kresl & Drummond 2004;Probst & Griffiths 2007;Leung 2012;Jasperse et al 2014).…”

Evaluating stress, burnout and job satisfaction in New Zealand radiation oncology departments

“…; Akroyd et al . ; Webster & Kristjanson ,b; Probst & Griffiths ). Burnout involves physical, mental and emotional exhaustion due to long‐term involvement in emotionally demanding situations (Maslach et al .…”

“…) have consistently identified that oncology care workers are at a significantly greater risk of burnout than other medical workers. These studies have also associated burnout with increased psychological distress, low morale, shift work, job dissatisfaction and an intention to leave the profession (Probst & Griffiths ; Poulsen et al . ).…”

Maltese Radiographers' Attitudes towards Continuing Professional Development: An Initial Study Using Concept Maps

“…Policy makers' motivators are similar to those of professional bodies and to some extent employers. Professionals and policy makers emphasize that health care professionals have a duty towards the public to keep their KSC up to date, while management literature suggests that the provision of CPD opportunities encourages the retention of health care professionals [43][44][45]. The setup of a learning organization, where a group of people are continuously developing their KSC, would lead to competence shifts [15,16] that could either be sustainable as a result of technical innovation or disruptive as a result of some external market pressure that might require a move from one competence to an entirely different new competence.…”