My job as a ...Radiation Therapist

UndertheBridge

Occupation: Radiation Therapist or Therapeutic Radiographer or Radiotherapist....there all the same!

Qualifications Held: None as of yet....currently a second year student!

Previous Jobs: Part time shop assistant

Age: 21

What we do: Radiotherapists work as part of an oncology team to treat patients with cancer, using x-radiation (basically x-rays) and other radioactive sources. We treat a wide range of tumours in areas such as the head and neck, lung, breast, bowel and prostate to name but a few. Many patients receiving radiotherapy would also receive other cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, hormone therapy and surgery. We deliver the treatment using special x-ray machines called linear accelerators.

Radiotherapy can be used as a primary treatment or as an adjuvant treatment e.g (given to a patient after the removal of a tumour to ensure that all the cancerous cells are gone). The aim of radiotherapy is to only treat the area that is required, trying not to damage healthy tissue in the process i.e for a lung tumour that is located at the bottom of the lung we would only deliver radiotherapy to the tumour location and not to the whole lung. In order to ensure that we do not damage healthy tissue it is necessary to plan the treatment in advance by taking images of the tumour and setting the machines so that the beam of radiation which we use to treat the patient is only centered on the tumour area. Treatment planning is done by medical physicists and oncologists.

Day to Day: The job of a radiotherapist is basically a 9-5 job, monday to friday. Every day we would see 20-30 patients, even more. Radiotherapy treatment only lasts 5-10 minutes for each patient every day. Patients would typically come to the radiotherapy department for anything from 1-6 weeks. The treatment involves the patient lying on a table for 5-10 minutes. Before the treatment begins we would position the patient correctly so that the beam of radiation is delivered to the same spot each day. We would then leave the treatment room and go to a workstation outside the room and work the machines. No one must enter the room whilst the radiation is being delivered to the patient. We monitor the patient at all time through cameras that are in the room.

It is also our job to monitor the health of the patient and to always ask them how they are feeling etc. Radiotherapy has many side effects such as vomiting, skin reddening etc and if patients present with these side effects we refer them onto a nurse who will prescribe remedies. Most patients respond quite well to the treatment but if we feel that a patient is not doing well we would refer them back to their oncologist, who will review the treatment.

Other info: A lot of people ask me if the job is quite depressing, seems as we work with people suffering with cancer. The answer is no. Surprisingly, 60% of the patients we treat will recover. Each day many of our patients would come in from work etc to be treated (to look at them you would never even know they have cancer!). Yes you will see some distressing cases i.e young children, young people your own age etc who are extremely ill but you will build up an emotional barrier to it. Therapy radiographers are an optimistic bunch.....the department I did my placement in called themselves "The team with the beam"....beaming and smiling were the orders of the day. Its not all melancholy. You do have banter with the patients. Its your job to reassure them.

Where to study: There is only one undergraduate course in Ireland that leads to recognition as a Radiation Therapist in Ireland. The BSc (Hons) in Radiation Therapy in Trinity College. I am currently studying in Scotland. There are plenty of courses in the UK.... heres a list of them... http://www.hpc-uk.org/education/programmes/register/index.asp?EducationProviderID=all&StudyLevel=all&ProfessionID=12&ModeOfStudyID=all&RegionID=all&sSubmit=Search

All of these are undergraduate courses, I don't know much about Postgrad courses. In Scotland courses have a duration of 4 years. Elsewhere in the UK courses are 3 years.

Misc: Patient receiving treatment from a linear accelerator.... http://news.stanford.edu/news/2007/april18/gifs/accelerator3.jpg

Website from the Macmillan Cancer Support Group. Provides information on cancer, types of cancer, treatments, prognosis etc. Orientated towards patients and their families so its light reading for those of you interested.... http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Home.aspx

Light reading of the aforementioned radiation treatment planning and positioning (Leave the hard stuff till you're in uni!)... http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/radiation-therapy/CA00075

Hope this is of interest to people out there. Would love to answer questions from anyone, if you need to know more about the job, how to go about getting work experience in Ireland or about applying to study in the UK.

jumpguy

Thanks a million for the post.

What specifically is the radiotherapists job on the oncology team? For example, do they decide how much radiation is to be delivered for treatment, or just how best to deliver it?

How would one go about getting work experience in Ireland?

UndertheBridge

The job the Radiation Therapists do is dictated by the oncologists and medical physicists....by dictated I don't mean in a fascist way!...they basically relay the instructions to us on how to treat the patient.

When a patient is first diagnosed with cancer they will see an oncologist who will determine the best course of treatment to take, whether it be surgery, chemo or radiotherapy. If radiotherapy is chosen then the patient will undergo CT's, MRI's and whatever else is necessary to determine the exact location of the tumour. The information gathered from these investigations is then relayed onto the medical physicists. It is their job to calculate the amount of radiation that is needed to eradiacate the tumour, but also to calculate the size and power of the beam that is needed. They also have to make sure that the beam only penetrates the amount of tissue that it needs to as certain tissues are very sensitive to high levels of radiation and can easily be damaged. When all these calculations are made they are given to the radiation therapists, who input the calculations into the linear accelerators to treat the patients! If you havent been on work experience this will be like double dutch to you, but once you spend a couple of hours shadowing in the radiotherapy dept you will understand what I mean!

I did work experience in University College Hospital in Galway. I just rang up the radiotherapy dept one day and got the name of the student liaison. I emailed him and arranged a day to come in and visit. They only allow you to come in for one day (this was the case last summer anyways). But it was a brillant, informative day. I even got to sit in with the medical physicists and oncologists whilst they were doing the treatment planning (hadn't a clue what was happening but now I realise the wow aspect of it!).

coffeelover

Hi OP.

Your job sounds really interesing. Would i need to do more than 1 science subject if i wanted to do this course?

rody1982

Hi UndertheBridge,
Thanks a mil for that information. Its really helpful!
I just have a few questions to ask if you wouldn't mind answering. I'm thinking about changing my career to become a radiation therapist. Trying to do my homework on it before I decide to apply to courses.
I read in one of the posts that there is a high turnover of staff in these positions? why is this do you think -because of the stress of the job, pay or just boredom with the job? is there a lot of maths/ physics in this job? Id just be worried that I may not be technically minded enough for the position even though I did study maths and physics in my undergraduate degree in first and second year (almost ten years ago) or is it a matter of using computer systems?
Thanks for your help.

jumpguy

Really strange coincidence this thread was bumped again today, I was just researching it as it's very likely to be on the CAO. Seems like a nice job. Just kinda concerned though, is it kinda sounds like the medical physicists and oncologists etc do the mentally challenging work (calculating and thinking and the likes), and the radiation therapists just adjust the machines and push the buttons. Is that a misguided view of it?

UndertheBridge

So sorry to anybody who asked questions on this original post, I disappeared off the face of the boards earth for months, if any body has anything to ask about radiotherapy please ask I promise I'll answer

Denter

Hey, thanks for the original post.

Do you know of any way to get into radiography if you don't get the points first time round (bar repeating)? Like through a science degree?

Thanks again.

shane1994

How much is the salary for a qualified radiation therapist

Mr.Fun

being happy at work is more important than salary!!!!!!

Panda246

Hi, I want to study this course, but will I be let in if a have an infectious disease, and be able to pursuit a career in this successfully?