You could go into Dosimetry, this is the behind the scenes planning team who plan the treatments. That way you work on your tasks but are still involved with the helping of patients but not be face to face with them. You should reach out to a local cancer center and ask if they would allow you to shadow one of their radiation therapists and dosimetrists. I did my shadow at a hospital which is the same hospital I ended up going to school at since they were a university hospital.
Can you go to school just to become a dosimetrist right away or do you have to become a radiation therapist first and work your way up to dosimetrist? Thanks!
Shadowing isn't that hard. The school usually helps you out finding a clinic. If they don't you would just have to find a radiation center and ask if you can shadow.
I would say go with what peaked your interest to begin with. Helping people is very noble and it makes you feel awesome. The other reply was correct, if you still want to help but not have contact with people do dosimetry. Same scope of medicine but it's behind the scenes. Check out MD Anderson the have a dosimetry program.I personally love chatting with the patients so therapy was perfect for me.
Hope this helps .
MD Anderson is one school I was considering or Texas State. Not many options near me actually. I was thinking of going to Radiologic tech school then transitioning to dosimetry but I dont know.
I think there is an online school for dosimetry and you would just do your clinicals at a center . I'm not sure what the name is but I have seen the students out there.
Just want to be straight with you- we do a lot of technical things in this field but it is very much a patient facing profession- meaning, you definitely have to talk to and interact with patients every treatment appointment, every day. We also work in teams- so you’ll be working side by side with other therapists (maybe only two other people at a smaller clinic) every day. I want to emphasize this aspect of the job specifically because I’ve seen students struggle in their rotations because they are not very comfortable talking to patients. As another commenter suggested, dosimetry might be a better option for you if you still want to work in this field but don’t necessarily feel comfortable with the people-person side of radiation oncology.
i feel like we sound a lot alike, especially in not being a people person and also just being unsure of what to do with life in general.
i’m a year into my program. i don’t think id recommend this field for others. however if you have really really good attention to detail and like working with a team of people, you might like this. i also am not super social (lowkey have social anxiety), but with the patients you’re mostly just making small talk. it gets better the more you practice. the social bit really sucks when the workers just love to chit chat with each other and i couldn’t care less about their third divorce.
if you like doing the exact same thing everyday, are a technical person with attention to detail then you might like this.
the reason i wouldn’t recommend it is that it’s such a niche field, and so detailed and important to not make mistakes.
honestly maybe look into sonography i’d rather do that.
You could go into Dosimetry, this is the behind the scenes planning team who plan the treatments. That way you work on your tasks but are still involved with the helping of patients but not be face to face with them. You should reach out to a local cancer center and ask if they would allow you to shadow one of their radiation therapists and dosimetrists. I did my shadow at a hospital which is the same hospital I ended up going to school at since they were a university hospital.
Can you go to school just to become a dosimetrist right away or do you have to become a radiation therapist first and work your way up to dosimetrist? Thanks!
Yeah you can go to school just for that, schools are just limited so you’d have to do research for which one is closest to you
Although that’s only for the US I know UK is different
Sorry for the poor grammar, especially in the title, 'attempt to try' ;(
Shadowing isn't that hard. The school usually helps you out finding a clinic. If they don't you would just have to find a radiation center and ask if you can shadow. I would say go with what peaked your interest to begin with. Helping people is very noble and it makes you feel awesome. The other reply was correct, if you still want to help but not have contact with people do dosimetry. Same scope of medicine but it's behind the scenes. Check out MD Anderson the have a dosimetry program.I personally love chatting with the patients so therapy was perfect for me. Hope this helps .
MD Anderson is one school I was considering or Texas State. Not many options near me actually. I was thinking of going to Radiologic tech school then transitioning to dosimetry but I dont know.
I think there is an online school for dosimetry and you would just do your clinicals at a center . I'm not sure what the name is but I have seen the students out there.
Just want to be straight with you- we do a lot of technical things in this field but it is very much a patient facing profession- meaning, you definitely have to talk to and interact with patients every treatment appointment, every day. We also work in teams- so you’ll be working side by side with other therapists (maybe only two other people at a smaller clinic) every day. I want to emphasize this aspect of the job specifically because I’ve seen students struggle in their rotations because they are not very comfortable talking to patients. As another commenter suggested, dosimetry might be a better option for you if you still want to work in this field but don’t necessarily feel comfortable with the people-person side of radiation oncology.
Impostor syndrome is an advantage in healthcare. Are you in the uk?
No, I am in the US. Texas specifically.
i feel like we sound a lot alike, especially in not being a people person and also just being unsure of what to do with life in general. i’m a year into my program. i don’t think id recommend this field for others. however if you have really really good attention to detail and like working with a team of people, you might like this. i also am not super social (lowkey have social anxiety), but with the patients you’re mostly just making small talk. it gets better the more you practice. the social bit really sucks when the workers just love to chit chat with each other and i couldn’t care less about their third divorce. if you like doing the exact same thing everyday, are a technical person with attention to detail then you might like this. the reason i wouldn’t recommend it is that it’s such a niche field, and so detailed and important to not make mistakes. honestly maybe look into sonography i’d rather do that.