RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: Research in the last decade shows growing interest for soft skills in healthcare, due to awareness of the influence of adverse events in healthcare. However, there was no specific study about non-technical skills used by therapists in the French radiation oncology departments. What are these behavioral competencies that medical radiation technologists (MRT) use in their work to deliver safe and efficient healthcare? METHOD: We built a self-assessment grid of 40 non classified soft skills for the active MRT to fulfill. This tool was sent to a total of 8 private and public radiation oncology department's head therapists. First, the 42 sampled MRTs had to choose how much they felt reflected in each of the listed soft skills. Second, they were asked to select 5 skills that they felt were the most important for a radiation therapist from the 40 soft skills in the initial grid. RESULTS: The 5 soft skills MRTs think they have include the following: conscientiousness, working autonomously, listening, diligence, and working in a multidisciplinary team. The three they think they have the least are: being creative, managing conflicts, and being bold. For the skills that they felt were the most important , MRT selected: being conscientious, listening, working in a multidisciplinary team, showing empathy, and anticipating. CONCLUSION: These results show that the skills known in the Big Five personality traits model as "conscientiousness" and "agreeableness" come first. Conscientiousness and listening skills are the biggest skills for the radiation therapists, because these are the skills they think they have the most, and also because they consider these skills as the most useful for an MRT. The radiation therapists surveyed did not think they were bold, nor creative, nor able to manage conflicts. The way the MRT perceives themselves is as a conscientious technician and a nice caregiver, compliant with what is expected from them professionally and in the society.
