Unmet educational needs, challenges, and potential benefits in expanding prescriber bases in oncology and prostate cancer: A scoping review.

Abstract

e13511 Background: Expanding prescriber bases is essential for more equitable and holistic healthcare, particularly amid the global healthcare workforce crisis. In oncology, healthcare professionals are experiencing increasing workloads due to therapeutic advances and improved patient survival requiring multiple lines of therapy. This scoping review aims to identify benefits and challenges associated with expanding prescriber bases, particularly for oncology and prostate cancer. Methods: A targeted literature review was performed on PubMed to identify relevant articles published between 2019–2024, with additional information sourced from grey literature. Articles were screened against predefined research questions, with data extracted on the benefits, barriers, challenges, and unmet educational needs when expanding a prescriber base. Results: Overall, 51 studies were included. Benefits of expanding prescriber bases included increased professional autonomy, widening skillsets, enhanced job satisfaction, and improved resource allocation. However, a lack of education/training was identified, particularly around guideline adherence, foundational understanding of concepts (e.g., mechanisms of action), and interpretation of efficacy/safety data. Online resources could help reduce reliance on mentors/supervisors and facilitate ongoingeducation and training. In prostate cancer, the growing availability of systemic anticancer therapies (SACT) allows more patients to receive treatment and offers more treatment options for individual patients. Expanding the prescriber base for SACT is required to meet this demand. Several SACT training options were identified including subspecialty accreditation, university accredited courses and online learning modules. Conclusions: Better training programs are critical to ensure healthcare professionals can safely and effectively prescribe treatments, giving patients fair access to the care they need.