Actionable companion · Staff wellbeing and retention

From leadership research to district action: Exploring staff recruitment and retention in radiation therapy: global insights from an ESTRO RTT workshop

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide. Proposed district actions are separate from the original authors’ findings and recommendations. Independent peer review of this guide is not asserted.

Evidence and transfer

Education-related source: verify which participants, institutions and outcomes were actually studied before district adoption. Source publication type: brief-report. License and identity checks do not establish study quality or causality.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the source license:

Highlights • An ESTRO RTT Workshop identified workforce challenges facing our profession. • Motivators to enter or leave the profession are similar globally. • Dynamic strategies are needed to support staff as professional priorities evolve. Abstract Reduced recruitment and retention of radiation therapists (RTT) significantly impacts patient care and the profession. The European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology RTT workshop explored professional motivation, early career experiences, progression and continuous education, and job satisfaction. Participants were initially motivated by working in a specialised, technology-driven field and making a meaningful patient impact, later shifting toward team-oriented goals. Addressing these evolving motivations is key to improving retention. Suggested strategies include fostering belonging during student placements, enhancing graduate onboarding, ensuring equal access to research and education funding, and enabling leadership autonomy to provide protected time from clinical duties.

A 90-day district inquiry

1. Days 1–15 · Appraise. Read the source methods, recruitment, comparator, outcomes and limitations. Record how the study setting differs from your district and which claim the design can support.
2. Days 16–30 · Design. Map one recurring source of staff workload with voluntary staff input. Agree one reversible schedule, support or task-allocation change and name its owner. Agree participation, privacy protections, baseline and stopping rules before starting.
3. Days 31–60 · Observe. Collect the pre-agreed measures, keep a log of implementation changes and invite confidential voluntary feedback. Preserve existing support for staff and learners.
4. Days 61–90 · Decide. Compare workload hours, a consistent voluntary wellbeing measure, absence and retention intentions with the pre-pilot baseline. Report response rates and avoid causal claims from an uncontrolled comparison. Make a dated decision to stop, revise or extend the inquiry.

Board decision brief

Present the local problem, source setting, evidence limits, intervention, responsible owner, total cost, measured changes and uncertainty. Separate staff perceptions, implementation measures and student learning outcomes.

Attribution and reuse

Sophie Perryck; Nigel Anderson; Philipp Scherer; Elizabeth Forde. Exploring staff recruitment and retention in radiation therapy: global insights from an ESTRO RTT workshop. Technical Innovations & Patient Support in Radiation Oncology (2026-05-23). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tipsro.2026.100412

Prepared 2026-11-07. Source authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract and source passages are attributed extracts; this editorial guide is offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license.