Beacon Bootcamp: A Near-Peer, Experiential Approach to Chemotherapy Prescribing Education in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship

Pediatric hematology/oncology fellows at our institution lacked formal training in prescribing chemotherapy and supportive care. This pilot study aimed to assess the feasibility of implementing a structured curriculum in a fellowship program and to gain preliminary insights into its impact on fellows' confidence and competence in placing chemotherapy and supportive care orders in the Epic Beacon system. We developed Beacon Bootcamp using Kern 6-Step Approach to Curriculum Development. General and targeted needs assessments informed the learning objectives. We held individual practice sessions, grounded in Kolb experiential learning theory, as one of our educational strategies and piloted a near-peer teaching model. The curriculum was implemented during the 2024 to 2025 academic year, and outcomes were compared with a baseline cohort from the prior academic year. Fellows who participated in Beacon Bootcamp reported higher levels of comfort with prescribing chemotherapy and supportive care compared with the previous cohort, which did not receive formal training. We observed a lower rate of order corrections required following the intervention (21% vs. 38%); however, the small sample size limited statistical analysis. Our findings suggest that Beacon Bootcamp improves fellows' confidence and may reduce prescribing errors. Its impact could be greater if implemented during the first quarter of the fellowship. Further evaluation in a larger cohort is needed to more definitively assess its effectiveness.