Radiotherapy teaching during COVID-19: An emergency teaching response

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in more than six million deaths in the first two years, a third of the estimated number of cancer-related deaths during this time. It directly impacted radiotherapy training in Africa. Aim(s): This study evaluated the changes applied to the Access to Care Cape Town Radiotherapy training programme during the pandemic. Setting(s): The training platform prior to March 2020 was used as a baseline and compared with the programme status in January 2022, representing the emergency teaching model. Method(s): Five themes were investigated: computer hardware and software changes;e-Learning resources;programme and curriculum changes;challenges experienced and alignment with modern medical education principles. Result(s): Reconfiguration of the computer laboratories was required, including additional computer monitors, web cameras and headsets, as well as installation of screen recording and teleconferencing software. The EclipseTM radiotherapy treatment planning laboratory was reconfigured for remote student access, with simultaneous monitoring by local assistants. Online learning was augmented by adding the University of Cape Town VulaTM system as resource, and courses restructured for delivery of short blocks. Five new courses were developed, including collaborations with international training partners, showing good alignment with the principles of modern medical education. Conclusion(s): Reconfiguration was performed at a manageable cost but required a high level of information technology support. Connectivity and bandwidth issues remain a challenge, as well as online engagement. Contribution: Despite these challenges, the virtualisation allowed for continued training between March 2020 and December 2021, with 18 departments attending remote teaching courses. Copyright © 2022. The Authors.

Employee engagement at work

Organizations have come to realize that in today's constantly changing business scenario, the most valuable resource that needs to be leveraged is human resource. This means not just attracting them and retaining them but keeping them motivated and committed to achieving the organization goals. An engaged workforce produces better business results, does not only hope jobs but more importantly is an ambassador of the organization at all points of time. This engagement is achieved when people consider their organization respects their work, their work contributes to the organization goals and more importantly their personal aspirations of growth, rewards and pay are met. Employee engagement started to play a major role during the COVID-19 Pandemic as people started to work from home. Many organisations believe that employees work only for remuneration, but this thinking is not always correct as there are several other factors that motivates and keeps employees engaged in an organisation. Different strategies can be used to increase employee engagement while they working from home by using employee engagement survey.

Bridging the Radiotherapy Education Gap in Africa: Lessons Learnt from the Cape Town Access to Care Training Programme Over the Past 5 Years (2015-2019)

The role of radiotherapy (RT) in cancer care is well described, with a clear correlation between access to radiotherapy and overall survival. Cancer mortality rates in Africa are substantially higher than those of the rest of the world, which may be partly attributed to lack of RT access and insufficient human resources. The Access to Care (A2C) Cape Town RT training programme was created in 2014 with the aim of supplementing practical RT training in the region, focusing on clinics moving from 2 to 3D conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT). The programme makes use of hybrid teaching methods, including pre-course e-learning followed by 17 on-site days of free-thinking design exercises, didactic learning, hands-on treatment planning computer sessions (39% of total teaching time), virtual simulation training and departmental demonstration sessions. Email support is offered to all teams for 3 months after each course to develop clinical protocols. Thirteen teams (radiation oncologist, medical physicist and radiation therapy technologist) from Africa attended the course between 2015 and 2019, with additional participants from seven South African and four international centres. E-learning done on the LaraNara training platform was only successful once formal progress tracking was introduced in 2019 (34% vs. 76% test completion rate). Delays between course attendance and initial clinical use of equipment proved to be detrimental to knowledge retention, with some centres having to send a second team for training. The course will be modified for remote teaching in 2021, to make provision for the global changes in travel due to Covid-19.