How I Do It: Interprofessional Education and Radiation Therapy-Establishing Opportunities for Student Learning in the Workplace.

Abstract

Clinical workplaces such as hospitals are often keen to arrange interprofessional learning activities for students on clinical placements, but radiation therapy (RT) students are often overlooked because of a lack of awareness and understanding of their role in patient care. Furthermore, there are challenges in setting up hospital-based interprofessional education (IPE) because of the logistics of liaising with a large number of staff, as students are from different disciplines. Hospitals that offer RT are ideal sites to offer IPE, as invariably staff in these settings work interprofessionally to support patients with cancer and can immediately see its value. This How I do it guide lays out the practical steps needed to initiate and implement workplace-based IPE involving RT students modelled on a long-standing Cancer Care IPE learning activity in New Zealand.