Radiation Therapist, Croatia

This analysis underpins the main issues concerning the Radiation Therapy Technologist (RTT) staff shortage causes and consequences in Croatia. The experience comes from the largest hospitals in Croatia, radiotherapy and oncology departments.

The problem in Croatia began a few years ago, with fewer candidates showing up on job interviews. This was quite a shock. It had become common to have many more candidates than available positions. And then it happened. We began experiencing a real staff shortage, with not enough qualified people to perform needed radiation activity in the hospital.

This problem was already present for nursing and oncologists. The need for medical staff started to significantly exceed the number of available medical professionals. In radiation, it was not so obvious until recently, and there are a few reasons for that.

Manny radiotherapy professionals, including RTTs working in the Croatian public radiotherapy sector, moved to private radiotherapy or to other European countries drawn by higher salaries and better working conditions. The result is that currently, more than 25% of Croatia's RTTs working in some radiotherapy departments have less than a year of work experience. Since work experience is essential for RTT professionals, assembling skill-balanced teams working on radiotherapy machines is challenging, especially during periods of vacations.

Looking forward, the number of linear accelerators in Croatia will soon increase from the current 16 to a total of 25 machines in the public health sector. This will require an additional number of radiotherapy and oncology staff, including RTTs, to be employed and a significant amount of time to train and incorporate them into existing departments.

In the private radiotherapy sector, one active institution exists now. There is an ongoing process to start two additional private radiotherapy institutions requiring an unknown number of additional radiotherapy staff.

RTT education in Croatia is inadequate – in both theory and practice. The knowledge and skills obtained during education, do not meet the needs of modern radiotherapy. This reduces the initial interest of graduate students in moving towards radiotherapy practice and lowers their level of confidence to work as RTTs.

In short, Croatian radiotherapy is hampered by inadequate basic training, a constant need for continuing professional education (CPD), a rapidly growing demand for more RTT workers, and high workforce turnover. Not an encouraging situation.