The amount of available radiation therapist positions has been declining since 2012, but this year the tides have turned — slightly.

The American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT) Radiation Therapy Staffing and Workplace Survey found that the rate slightly increased from 1.6 percent in 2014 to 2.9 percent in 2016. In addition, the average number of radiation therapists on staff at each facility declined from 8.2 percent to 7.3 percent during the same time frame.

“This change from 2014 was marginal, and there's no way of knowing if this is indicative of a change in the trend,” John Culbertson, director of research at ASRT, told HCB News. “We will continue to ask these questions and longitudinally track these statistics, just as we have done since 2005.”
The survey was emailed to 4,854 managers of radiation therapy facilities in the U.S. in late July. When the survey closed in September, a total of 565 managers submitted the questionnaires, which equates to an 11.6 percent response rate.

The survey also asked about the vacancy rate of medical dosimetrists, which remained stable, with a 3.6 percent rate in 2014 and 3.5 percent rate in 2016. The amount of full-time medical dosimetrists who work in a given facility also changed slightly from 2.5 per facility in 2014 to 2.2 in 2016.

In August 2015, ASRT published the results of a similar survey that looked at the vacancy rate for radiographers. Based on questionnaires from 1,123 radiology department managers in the U.S., the rate increased from 1.7 percent in 2013 to 3.4 percent in 2015.

ASRT warns that the data should be interpreted with caution because a slight difference in the rates doesn’t indicate a trend. The organization will conduct the radiation therapist survey again in 2018 to determine if the rates continue to rise.

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