Sustainable Remote Work for Radiation Therapists: Implementation in a Large Urban Radiation Therapy Centre

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The COVID 19 pandemic created an urgent need to reduce onsite staff at the hospital. Remote work was implemented for Radiation Therapists (RTs) to reduce COVID 19 transmission, conserve personal protective equipment and facilitate physical distancing for staff required onsite. We report our experiences with a rapid pivot to remote work for RTs during the pandemic and the plan for a sustainable remote work strategy. Material(s) and Method(s) On March 16, 2020, our multi-site healthcare network provided emergency guidelines for remote work. The guidelines included the ability to perform full job duties remotely, appropriate space and equipment, no impact on patient care, and operational feasibility. RTs were asked to self-identify to their Supervisor if they met these requirements and wanted to work remotely. Commencing March 23, 2020, rotations were developed for on and offsite schedules balancing operational needs, skill mix, equity between team members, and cohorting to minimize COVID risk. Those performing direct patient facing activities were not able to work from home. Activities that could be performed remotely included radiation therapy planning, process and protocol development, quality assurance checks, project or research activities, and telephone patient education. Organizational implementation of technology solutions supported this rapid pivot to remote work. For example, remote access was required to clinical applications, email, and document management. Microsoft Teams was used for virtual communication and meetings. Result(s) From March 2020 to Dec 2021, 133 (64%) RTs worked remotely for >=1 day. 32% of RTs worked >100 shifts remotely, and 12% worked more than 200 shifts remotely. This resulted in 15,413 remote work shifts (25% of total shifts worked) for an average of 685 remote work shifts per month, peaking to a maximum of 1096 shifts during March 2021. Generally, remote work was well received by RTs. Many RTs reported benefits, including eliminating lengthy commutes, improved flexibility, reduced distractions and a break from PPE. Initially, there were some IT challenges, such as slow connectivity and incompatible home equipment, that made remote work difficult. Some RTs reported a sense of social isolation. There was a perceived lack of fairness between those who could and could not work remotely. There were also some challenges communicating between onsite and offsite teams, shift coverage, and onsite support. Conclusion(s) Overall, we demonstrated that RTs can successfully work remotely over a multi-year timeframe. Generally, this was a positive experience for RTs, who reported improved work-life balance and more flexibility with job duties. However, there were concerns about a lack of fairness for those in patient-facing roles. Despite these concerns, most RTs support continuing with remote work. Our department will continue with a long-term remote work strategy based on best practices for remote work and input from RTs Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).