The Interprofessional Radiation Oncology Rounds (IROR) as a New Model of Continuing Education-Program Evaluation

The Interprofessional Radiation Oncology Rounds (IROR) were developed to meet the continuing education objectives of an interprofessional audience at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre in 2003. The IROR audience consists of representatives from: oncology nursing, radiation therapy, radiation oncology and medical physics. To achieve a multiprofessional program, it was determined that each discipline would organize two IROR sessions to present their perspectives on topics of interest. The purpose was to evaluate the IROR program with respect to presentation topics, speakers and session evaluations. A retrospective review of the IROR evaluation forms between October 2005 and November 2008 was conducted. The IROR program was evaluated using descriptive statistics. This review describes the topics presented, the comments from the audience and the suggestions for future improvement. A total of 908 evaluation forms were submitted. The evaluation scores for the sessions were consistently high on all four items of assessment: relevance, interest, instructional merit and overall satisfaction. Overall, presentations were considered relevant and interesting to their practices and high mean scores indicated a strong consensus that these rounds were valuable to an interprofessional audience. However, decreased attendance of physicians was observed over the years. By incorporating the suggestions provided by a needs assessment, we hope that the rounds could be further improved to fulfill the participants' learning needs and to advocate a truly interprofessional learning environment. Further studies could determine if the rounds have any effect on team dynamics or interprofessional collaboration.