Communication is Key: Changing How Patients Receive Their CT Simulation Appointments to Improve Utilization of Radiation Therapy Services

Abstract

to be the biggest barrier. Other barriers included lack of time to complete the assessments. Positive clinician attitudes was the biggest facilitator identified. Interventions were selected to target the barriers and optimize use of facilitators. Educational sessions targeted the barrier of lack of awareness and knowledge. A local opinion leader will be recruited to mentor others. Knowledge use will be monitored using pre & post questionnaires, clinical observations, and chart reviews. Three primary outcomes will be evaluated after 6 months: patient satisfaction, changes in patient fatigue scores, and RTT awareness, knowledge and attitudes about the CCO SMG. As the last framework step, knowledge use will be sustained through monitoring with standard chart reviews. Successes will be celebrated and results shared at staff meetings. Benefits/Challenges: KT frameworks can increase the success of implementing and sustaining a change in practice. This framework incorporates critical elements of change and targets areas that often lead to failure. The strategy can be built into our current processes which also facilitates increased adoption. One of the challenges to using this framework was evaluating and sustaining the change. In addition, this strategy targets front-line MRT(T)s only and does not involve other stakeholders. It does not impact changes that may be needed at the organizational level. For example, more time may be needed for patient appointments to follow the guidelines. Impact: A knowledge translation strategy was developed to address an evidence-to-practice gap in the screening, assessment and management of CRF by MRT(T)s. Utilizing this strategy to close this gap is anticipated to improve care, patient satisfaction and quality of life for our patients.

The palliative clinical specialist radiation therapist: A CAMRT White Paper

“…It was concluded the use of these strategies should be routinely included to improve symptom control medications 55 . One pCSRT utilized a PDSA cycle to decrease the number of patients who did not attend or were unprepared for CTSIM by implementing a phone call reminder by CTSIM RT(T)s. This process change decreased the no-show rate by half 56 60 . One pCSRT examined the possibility of reducing PTV margins for patients receiving treatment to the cervical and/or upper thoracic spine in an S-frame mask.…”

Framework Development: Standardizing Definition of Advanced Practice Radiation Therapy Activities for Clinical Workload Quantification

“…Since the scope of this work was focused on recording clinical and patient-related AP Activity List, non-clinical APRT workload could not yet be tracked by this new framework. Future work will focus on developing mechanisms to capture other activities that are essential to APRTs’ responsibilities including, but not limited to, the development of patient education materials [22] , [23] , staff teaching/education/supervision [24] , [25] , research [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , community outreach [30] , workflow development [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] , new technology integration, implementation, process improvements and evaluations [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] and knowledge translation [40] , [41] , [42] , [43] .…”

A Canadian experience of palliative advanced practice radiation therapy TIPS: Training, implementation, practice and sustainability

“…As recognized leaders on the pRT team and beyond, pCSRTs can influence jurisdictions to achieve necessary changes and improvements in practice/processes, as demonstrated by pCSRTs' research and knowledge translation, academic contribution, and stakeholder experiences [6,12,14,18,21,[27][28][29][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49]. Table 3 summarizes the metrics used by pCSRTs to illustrate their influence, along with the methodology used to gather information.…”