Radiography UCD Vs Radiation Therapy TCD

freecool

Hey, I don't understand the difference between studing Radiography in UCD and Radiation Therapy in Trinity. They seem pretty similar but I need to make a decision quick on which of the two I'd prefare. Any information on the differences between the two would be very much appreciated

pathway33

A radiation therapist is the person responsible for diagnosing a course of radiotherapy to cancer patients. It is therefore emotionally demanding.


Radiographers work in the hospital x-ray department producing high-quality images in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.


I heard of someone who graduated in radiography and they hated it because they were a people person. They studied medicine after that and are now a doctor and love it.


Think about the job after because the jobs seem to be very diverse.
Btw www.qualifax.ie says there will be big demand for radiation therapist graduates.


Do you want to deal with people or machines in 4 years?

bythewoods

They're very similar, yes.
I did a good bit of research into them last year as they were my back-up courses.

I assume you've looked at both on Qualifax?
Radiography UCD: http://www.qualifax.ie/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=16
Radiation Therapy: http://www.qualifax.ie/qf/QFPublic/?Mainsec=courses&Subsec=course_details&ID=793&CSH_ID=4&AdvancedKeyword=&ResetCount=1

From what I gathered, Radiation Therapy (TCD) is more concerned with Cancer Treatment, whereas Radiography seems a little more general.
Both excellent degrees.

Fad

Theyre both completely different.

Fine they both involve radiation, but what they use it for is complete different.

Radio Therapy would the treatment of cancer etc using radiation.

Radiation therapy is using radiation to help diagnose things/check for fractures in bones (And afaik, you're qualified to use MRI machine 'n stuff)

Both are professions that are fairly female dominated*, guys tend to go for the Medical Physics end of things (Planning radiation therapy)

(*At least in the hospital I was in, but I kinda got the picture, that it's mainly women)

freecool

thanks for replying. I'm more into the people end of things and radiation therapy is looking more appealing at the moment. Thanks because I was finding it hard to find the info

bloominefa

Don't know how relevant this answer is since the offers are already out but just for future reference. I qualified in Radiation Therapy through TCD. I now work in the field as a radiation therapist.

Historically, radiography and radiation therapy (formerly know as therapeutic radiography) were once streamed together and later specialised towards the end of the degree. Numerous and rapid technological advances in both areas aswell as the opposing nature of the professions meant they were divided out into separate degrees sometime ago.

Radiography is purely diagnostic, ie the taking of x-ray images with low energy radiation. This is available in UCD. It is a bigger course due to the fact the supply needs to be greater. This stems purely from the fact that a greater amount of hospitals, clinics etc have diagnostic departments. (almost all to a greater to lesser extent.) This does not equate into a greater demand for graduates however.

Radiation Therapy is therapy based as the name suggests. Whilst there are now a great deal of imaging skills also needed in radiotherapy, (due to the addition of more advanced technology in current radiotherapy delivery) cancer treatment is 99.9% of the workload in Radiation Therapy career. This involves using much higher energies to kill cancer cells for a vast range of treatment sites, e.g breast, prostate, head and neck cancer. The course is smaller due to the fact that there are only three public hospitals supplying radiation therapy with a smattering of private clinics in addition to these. These departments are relatively large, namely St.Lukes in Rathgar, Dublin.

Before the recession, demand was extremely high for radiation therapy graduates, no problem with employment whatsoever to be honest. Im not sure if radiography had such a high graduate employment rate but it would not have been too far behind. Regards radiation therapy, HSE cutbacks and recruitment freezes mean employment has dropped dramatically for this years graduates. However with the expansion of services and nature of cancer treatment, the future will bring a steady rise in employment. There is a very high turnover of staff and hence most are between 22-35. (manly female, similar to all allied health sciences.) This is for a vast number of reasons....lack of career progession and salary capping are typical examples. Very good starting salary but this is as good it gets, it soon falls off as you go up the pay scale.

The course itself is very intersting and highly rewarding towards the end. It can be frustrating at times as there is alot tagged on in in first and second year....general pre-med in first year and worse in second year again. Third and final year give much more insight and include clinical placement. It is a challenging course and by no means easy. High drop out/failure rate in general.

The job is clinical both also very technical. Yes, you do deal with patients but it is a high stress enviroment and chatting is not always possible thus sometimes it can feel like a conveyor belt.

Theres not alot of awareness regarding the radiation therapy course or the profession. Hope this is of some help, wish I had as much starting out!

Alisa

Hi, im doing radiation therapy in tcd, in first year. I dont have any physics or know anything about it. is there a load of physics in the course?

bloominefa

Whilst I did do physics in the LC, there were a number of students in the course who didn't have a background and they got through it ok.

There is a substantial physics content in the course throughout the four years but its very manageable. I think they changed the 1st year course considerably since I was a student. It used to be a very general year, we were just thrown in with the pre-meds but TCD since cut medicine from 6 years to 5 so I think they geared it abit more towards the RT's....you'll obviously know better on that front. Its all radiation/medical physics after 1st year. Its taught well and once you keep up with the workload you should be fine.

The one thing I found hard to do is ask for help when I was struggling but make sure you tell them from the outset if your stuck, theres no point leaving it till the exams as they can't do much at that stage.

its a tough course and really doesn't get down to the nitty gritty of radiation therapy untill 3rd year. 2nd year is generally considered the hardest as its heavy on the content....biochemistry (with 1st year meds and hell on earth as far as im concerned), physiology, anatomy, physics, psychology.

Good luck with it and fire any questions my way if you stuck!

freecool

Hey bloominefa thanks for the information!
I've actually accepted radiation therapy already on the cao but I'm still don't really know too much about it in dept. I don't know any radiation therapist to talk to. One thing that slightly worries me is just the longitivity of the job. Would you be able to explain to me why there's a high turnover of staff and what do people do after that?
With college fees coming back soon it wouldn't be the cheapest move to do radiation therapy for 4 years then deceide to do something else in college again after that.
Thanks

Laydee

I am in 2 minds weather I want to do Oncology nursing or Radiation therapy, one way or another I have my heart set on treating cancer patients. I read on qualifax's website about mature students:

Mature applicants for Medicine are considered for admission to the first year of the five-year full-time degree programme.

What does this mean? Why only the 1st year of the degree?
This was posted under the radiation therapy section.

rodstewy

Hey you mention there is a high staff turnover - I'm just wondering where have all these people gone? Are there any interesting career stories? I've just finished a degree in biochemistry and hope to start a PgDip in RT & Oncology. But I've been having second thoughts. I appreciate any info you might have for me!

Fad

rodstewy wrote: »

But I've been having second thoughts. I appreciate any info you might have for me!

Probably better off asking here

This thread died ages ago, but you'll get a better answer there anyway