Times Are Tight: Staff Shortages Prompt New Strategies

ABSTRACT

Both the ACR, through its workforce survey, and the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), through its Workforce Task Force, are performing "deep dives into data analysis to evaluate the staffing and hiring landscape;final results are not yet available. Statistics for average budgeted FTEs for five other modalities for 2021 vs 2003 are * Computed tomography, 6.2, up from 3.4;* Magnetic resonance imaging, 4.7, up from 1.7;* Mammography, 4.9, up from 2.1;* Nuclear medicine, 3.6, up from 1.8;and, * Sonography, 5.0, up from 2.6 The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that radiologic and MRI technologist employment will grow 9% by 2030, about as fast as the average for all occupations, estimating 20,800 openings for these positions each year, on average.2 The BLS statistics point to a trend that more technologists will be needed to meet growing demand for imaging services. In radiation oncology, a lack of programs is contributing to shortages of physicists and dosimetrists and, to a lesser extent, radiation therapists, says Bruce G Haffty, MD, FACR, FASTRO, FASCO, chair of ASTRO's workforce subcommittee, associate vice chancellor of Cancer Programs at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, and professor and chair of the department of radiation oncology at Robert Wood Johnson and NJ Medical School, Rutgers Cancer Institute of NJ. "People have taken a step back to ask themselves, 'Is this really what I want to continue to do?'" She says the trend may impact her institution's ability to bring new talent into the profession and may even reduce the number of applicants to radiologic technology programs, "because people don't want to work in a hospital anymore."