Exploring the Emotional Meaning of Radiographers’ Experiences During First Radiotherapy Sessions with Cancer Patients
Keywords:
Radiotherapy Practice, Phenomenology, Emotional Experience, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Empathy in Healthcare, Radiographer-Patient RelationshipAbstract
Radiotherapy represents a technologically advanced yet emotionally complex domain within modern healthcare, where precision and empathy must coexist in patient care. Within this field, the emotional and existential experiences of radiographers—especially during their first encounters with cancer patients—remain underexplored despite their critical role in shaping therapeutic relationships. The existing literature has largely focused on technical competence and stress metrics, leaving unclear how radiographers interpret and find meaning in their emotional engagement with patients. This study addresses that gap through a concise phenomenological inquiry examining how radiographers experience and make sense of their emotions during the first radiotherapy session. Using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), data were obtained through semi-structured interviews lasting 45–60 minutes with ten radiographers recruited purposively from oncology centers. All procedures received institutional ethical approval, and interviews were analyzed through iterative coding and thematic interpretation. The results identified four essential themes—emotional weight of the first encounter, balancing professionalism and empathy, emotional containment, and meaning-making through empathic resonance—which together illustrate the existential depth of radiographers’ emotional worlds. Findings indicate that empathy operates as a professional resource rather than a form of emotional fragility, strengthening ethical judgment and patient connection. This study expands current understanding of radiotherapy practice by reframing emotional experience as a vital dimension of professional competence, offering a conceptual foundation for empathy-based education and clinical training.
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