Pediatric Oncology Career Motivations
BACKGROUND: The motivations for employees to enter into the field of pediatric oncology are not well understood. Motivations within other medical fields such as urology, orthopedics, and family medicine are described in the literature, as are the lived experiences and consequences of treatment for pediatric cancer survivors. However, there is also little known about the occurrence of cancer survivors and their friends/family entering a pediatric oncology field as a result of their experience. We hypothesize that the majority of pediatric oncology providers and staff have had some personal experience with cancer that served as a motivation for entering the field and sustains their motivation.
METHODS/RESULTS: To test our hypothesis, we designed a short, succinct 12 question de-identified RedCap survey for administrative, clinical, research, and other employees in the CHOP Cancer Center (n=450) inquiring about their motivations for entering and continuing in pediatric oncology and overall satisfaction for their career choice. The questions investigated personal oncology experiences of participants and asked them to rate ten motivational factors on a scale of 1-5 from “not at all influential” to “extremely influential”. We also included a question to gauge future willingness to speak about their careers with adolescents and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors. All survey recipients are adult, and participation is optional. Data analysis will involve both descriptive and summary statistics. The survey is currently going through expedited IRB approval at CHOP. In addition to designing the survey, over the course of my PURM project, I learned how to 1) do a background literature review to formulate a research hypothesis, 2) critically think about how to design a survey, analyze, and present the results, and 3) the review process of clinical research.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS: Once the surveys have been returned, we will analyze the results and share findings with the community in a presentation and/or journal manuscript. In the long term we hope to use these results to 1) identify the factors that draw people into the field of pediatric oncology in hopes of increasing opportunities for pediatric cancer survivors in the field of pediatric oncology and 2) reflect upon the makeup of the Cancer Center personnel to work towards a more inclusive and diverse work environment.
Comments
Insightful
Great work, it is always interesting to see what motivates people to pursue different careers. I think the survey questions were well developed. Do you think there are differences in why someone would pursue pediatric oncology as opposed to another medical field?
Insightful
Great work, it is always interesting to see what motivates people to pursue different careers. I think the survey questions were well developed. Do you think there are differences in why someone would pursue pediatric oncology as opposed to another medical field?
Intriguing question!
Hi Lanie,
Your research project- and the gap in the literature that it seeks to fill- was really interesting! I can definitely think of people that I know who wanted to pursue a career in medicine after going through some personal medical experience with their family/friend. Was the RedCap survey one that has been used and then modified through de-identification for this project?
Great Topic!
This is a really great topic and one that is very important! When the results of the survey are analyzed and you can determine what motivates people to go into pediatric oncology, do you think it’s possible to use this information to inspire more people to go into the field?
Great Topic!
This is a really great topic and one that is very important! When the results of the survey are analyzed and you can determine what motivates people to go into pediatric oncology, do you think it’s possible to use this information to inspire more people to go into the field?
Thanks for the comments and questions!
Thanks for the comments! To answer your questions:
Kevin- I do think there may be differences in motivations for pediatric oncology as opposed to a different medical field. I think that the patients in pediatric oncology are a very unique subset in that most of them spend a lot of their time in the hospital and with the staff during their formative years. For this reason, I think that pediatric cancer survivors are more likely to want to enter pediatric oncology as a result of their experience than, say, someone who stayed in the hospital for ACL surgery deciding to enter into orthopedics. Another difference may be that pediatrics is a lower paid specialty than many, so I hypothesize that earning potential will be a more lowly rated motivational factor than in a high paying specialty such as anesthesia. However, all of these are simply my hypotheses so I will get back to you when we have the results!
Joan- No, we designed this RedCap survey from scratch for this study however, I did a lot of research on the motivational factors used in other medical field motivation surveys so we adapted many of those factors in order for them to apply to the many different roles that will participate in our survey.
Future Plans
Hi Lia, thank you for your kind words! We hope to use the information from this survey to increase opportunities for pediatric cancer survivors in the field. We also see it as an opportunity to reflect on the makeup of employees and work to increase inclusivity and diversity in the field.
Great topic!
I love this topic and think it is so important to explore why health care providers enter pediatric oncology. Did your survey include all health care providers, or just one specific group like doctors, nurses, etc?