How to become a Radiation Therapist 2024

Radiation Therapist Provide radiation therapy to patients as prescribed by a radiation oncologist according to established practices and standards. Duties may include reviewing prescription and diagnosis; acting as liaison with physician and supportive care personnel; preparing equipment, such as immobilization, treatment, and protection devices; and maintaining records, reports, and files. May assist in dosimetry procedures and tumor localization.

Radiation Therapist is Also Know as

In different settings, Radiation Therapist is titled as

Computed Tomography Simulation Therapist (CT Simulation Therapist)
Dosimetrist
Medical Dosimetrist
Radiation Therapist (RT)
Radiation Therapy Technologist (RTT)
Registered Radiation Therapist
Staff Radiation Therapist

Education and Training of Radiation Therapist

Radiation Therapist is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Radiation Therapist

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Radiation Therapist

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Radiation Therapist

Training Required for Radiation Therapist

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Radiation Therapist in different industries are

What Do Radiation Therapist do?

Administer prescribed doses of radiation to specific body parts, using radiation therapy equipment according to established practices and standards.
Position patients for treatment with accuracy, according to prescription.
Enter data into computer and set controls to operate or adjust equipment or regulate dosage.
Follow principles of radiation protection for patient, self, and others.
Maintain records, reports, or files as required, including such information as radiation dosages, equipment settings, or patients' reactions.
Review prescription, diagnosis, patient chart, and identification.
Conduct most treatment sessions independently, in accordance with the long-term treatment plan and under the general direction of the patient's physician.
Check radiation therapy equipment to ensure proper operation.
Observe and reassure patients during treatment and report unusual reactions to physician or turn equipment off if unexpected adverse reactions occur.
Check for side effects, such as skin irritation, nausea, or hair loss to assess patients' reaction to treatment.
Educate, prepare, and reassure patients and their families by answering questions, providing physical assistance, and reinforcing physicians' advice regarding treatment reactions or post-treatment care.
Calculate actual treatment dosages delivered during each session.
Prepare or construct equipment, such as immobilization, treatment, or protection devices.
Photograph treated area of patient and process film.
Help physicians, radiation oncologists, or clinical physicists to prepare physical or technical aspects of radiation treatment plans, using information about patient condition and anatomy.
Train or supervise student or subordinate radiotherapy technologists.
Act as liaison with physicist and supportive care personnel.
Provide assistance to other healthcare personnel during dosimetry procedures and tumor localization.
Implement appropriate follow-up care plans.
Store, sterilize, or prepare the special applicators containing the radioactive substance implanted by the physician.
Assist in the preparation of sealed radioactive materials, such as cobalt, radium, cesium, or isotopes, for use in radiation treatments.
Schedule patients for treatment times.

Qualities of Good Radiation Therapist

Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.

Tools Used by Radiation Therapist

35 millimeter cameras
Area radiation monitors
Automated external defibrillators AED
Band saws
Beam direction shells
Body-fat calipers
Brachytherapy units
Cobalt radiation therapy machines
Computed tomography CT radiation therapy planning simulators
Computed tomography CT scanners
Computerized block cutting equipment
Daylight medical film processing equipment
Desktop computers
Digital cameras
Drill presses
Dual diode dosimeter patient dose monitors
Dynamic phantoms
Electrometers
Heat guns
Immobilizing bite blocks
Laboratory water baths
Laptop computers
Lead alloy shielding blocks
Linear accelerator compensation filters
Magnetic resonance imaging MRI systems
Medical diagnostic x ray equipment
Medical imaging fluoroscopes
Medical linear accelerator intensity modulated radiation therapy IMRT collimators
Medical linear accelerator intensity modulated radiation therapy IMRT three dimensional units
Medical linear accelerator intensity modulated radiation therapy IMRT two dimensional units
Medical x ray image intensifiers
Multi-leaf radiation therapy collimators
Multi-monitor dosimetry systems
Optical distance indicators
Patient positioning devices
Patient positioning headrests
Patient positioning neck rests
Patient positioning straps
Patient treatment area casts
Personal radiation monitors
Position verification lasers
Power drills
Protective medical gloves
Radiation protection eyewear
Radiation shielding lead aprons
Radiation therapy beam directing wedges
Respiration monitors
Solid state diode detectors
Survey meters
Thyroid shields
Treatment room intercoms
Treatment verification equipment
Ultrasound imaging scanners
Vacuum formers
Wireless patient dosimeters
Wood chisels
Workshop lathes
X ray or fluoroscopy treatment planning simulators

Technology Skills required for Radiation Therapist

Beam analysis software
Dose unit calculation software
eClinicalWorks EHR software
Eclipse IDE
Electronic medical record EMR software
Image processing software
Lifeline Software RadCalc
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office software
Microsoft Word
Nucletron planning systems
Patient management software
Procedure scheduling software
Radiation dose calculation software
Radiation therapy equipment software
Sun Nuclear MapCHECK
Treatment planning software
Virtual simulation software
Web browser software

US Universities

How to become Radiation Therapist in 2024