Person-centred care is only possible by first caring for the staff who provide it. This study assesses job satisfaction, burnout and related factors to gain an insight into the experiences of the Radiotherapy workforce in the North West of England.

A quantitative survey was distributed across three radiotherapy centres in the North West, employing validated instruments including the Job Satisfaction Survey, Maslach Burnout Inventory and questions adapted from the NHS Staff Survey. Free-text responses were included to allow participants to expand on their answers.

208 members of staff participated. 41.3% of participants felt satisfied with their job, with significant variation between professional groups. Mean emotional exhaustion scores were low, but moderate levels of depersonalisation and low personal accomplishment suggest signs of burnout. Only 30.4% of respondents felt there were enough staff to do their job properly, and 29.4% are considering leaving the organisation.

Although staff continue to find meaning and fulfilment in patient care, this is offset by emotional strain, limited progression opportunities and workforce turnover. The North West radiotherapy workforce is highly committed but at risk of long-term burnout, underscoring the need for sustained workforce planning and investment in staff wellbeing.

A common strategy for managing emergency department (ED) patients with low-risk abdominal pain is to discharge them home and arrange for next day outpatient ultrasound for further assessment. The objective was to determine the proportion of outpatient ultrasounds with findings requiring intervention within 14 days.

This was a retrospective chart review of non-pregnant patients ages 18 to 40 years, presenting to an academic ED (annual census 65,000) with an abdominal complaint for whom the emergency physician arranged an outpatient (next day) abdominal ultrasound.

Of the 299 included patients, 252 (84.3%) were female and mean (SD) age was 28.4 (6.0) years. Twenty-three (7.7%) patients had ultrasounds requiring intervention within 14 days of imaging. Of these, eight (34.8%) had appendicitis, five (21.7%) had cholecystitis, four (17.4%) had urological pathology, three (13.0%) had gynecological pathology, and three (13.0%) had gastrointestinal diagnoses. Of note, 14 (60.9%) patients requiring follow-up or intervention within 14 days had symptoms that improved or resolved at the time of the outpatient ultrasound. For the 277 (92.6%) patients not requiring intervention, 117 (42.2%) had improved, 89 (32.1%) were unchanged, 50 (18.1%) had resolved, and 5 (1.8%) had worsened symptoms at the time of the follow-up ultrasound. Of the non-intervention patients, 13 (4.7%) went on to have alternative imaging, including magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, and a sonohysterogram.

Next-day ultrasound imaging remains a good way of identifying patients with serious pathology not appreciated at the time of their ED visit.