healing environments in radiotherapy - Agnes van den Berg

Healing Environments in Radiotherapy Project Report
Comparative Case Study
Because healing environments in radiotherapy are intended to provide a number of benefits to
cancer patients, it was deemed important to gain the patients’ perspective on the kind of elements
of radiotherapy environments that are needed to create a healing environment. This kind of
qualitative data is essential especially in under-researched areas, since it can provide important
directives for the practical implementation of theoretical findings, as well as guide future research
efforts.
Both cancer patients and radiotherapy staff can be expected to have valuable insights into which
elements of healing environments ‘work’ for patients in terms of creating a sense of well-being,
reducing stress, and supporting a positive and hopeful attitude. Therefore, the comparative case
study addressed both the patient and the staff perspective on healing environments in radiotherapy.
Here, it needs to be said that, although healing environments also have significant benefits for staff,
the limited scope and timeframe of this project did not allow for a separate investigation of these
benefits. Therefore, findings regarding the benefits of healing environments for staff were only
included in the report if they provided indirect benefits for the patients.
The patient perspective was investigated through focus groups, a kind of semi-structured group
interview, at the radiotherapy departments of the target and control hospitals. This enabled the
consultancy team to compare insights from patient groups who had been exposed to different kinds
of radiotherapy environment. The perspective of radiotherapy staff was investigated through semistructured
interviews with in total six employees at the target and control hospital’s radiotherapy
departments. The detailed methodology of the focus groups and staff interviews is outlined in
section 3 on patient and staff perspectives.
1.6 Report structure
The literature review uncovered several elements that are important in healing environments.
Through the good practice research and expert interviews, these findings could be substantiated and
made applicable to the specific focus on cancer patients. In order to avoid repetition, this report
presents the findings of the literature review, good practice research, and expert interviews together
in one section. The third section of the report will then focus on the findings of the comparative case
study, highlighting first the patient perspective on elements of healing environments, and then
turning to the perspective of radiotherapy staff. The findings of the project are summarised in the
penultimate section concerned with specific recommendations for healing environments in
radiotherapy. Finally, the report discusses limitations of the approach taken in this project and
directions for further research.
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