‘Foundation of Leadership in Radiation Oncology’ course - PDF Version

26-28 April, Milan, ESTRO38

It was a great experience for me to attend the leadership course run by the European SocieTy for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) in partnership with the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology (CARO) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR). I felt lucky to be a part of this different and inspiring course. It covered all the important issues related to leadership and its theories. It was also well conducted, with a webinar that was simple to use and illustrative videos that showed all the steps required to become a leader.

The course took place over eight weeks, including both online and live sessions. At the beginning of the online section, we met the course teachers in an online interview, which offered us the chance to ask some important points regarding the course. Despite a connection glitch, I was able to contact the course director, Sandra Turner, through Twitter and my problem was quickly solved. 

All the course teachers had great experience of being leaders and they provided us with all necessary equipment. The course was conducted as a pre-meeting course at the ESTRO38 congress and it proceeded through two lunch sessions.

This course helped me to find my leadership role and to discover my strengths and weaknesses in such a position. Before I attended the live sessions, I did not expect the course to be so very comprehensive. The course organisers prepared personal evaluation reports for each of us, which comprised 17 pages. I have taken part in more than ten ESTRO live and online education activities, but this course was unique. If you wish to take part, you should be prepared to learn how to be a leader. Before this course, I believed that you must be born as a leader because it was not possible to show leadership without innate skills.

However, I discovered that leadership could be learned with the help of an experienced team.

There was a lot of time for discussion and I was able to have all my questions answered. I liked the group discussion sessions in which contrasting opinions were sought and discussed. Constructive and honest feedback was constantly sought.

I was impressed with all the staff and equipment of this course. I am glad ESTRO is making an active effort to take their courses to non-European destinations, as I feel that this will have a clear impact in many countries across the world.

Fatima Sert
Radiation Oncologist
Ege University Medical School and Hospital
Izmir, Turkey
Fatma.sert@ege.edu.tr