Billie Mudie, Department of Radiation Therapy:

The study of RT encompasses the theoretical and the practical components. So the programme setup of the first year is theory. Second and third year, half of it is practical and half of it is theory.

Things that we’re looking at for study in the academic is anatomy and physiology, the study of radiation therapy — and that’s including physics, the cell types, how we actually apply the radiation — and then some of the specific things around radiation therapy planning. Some of the real aspects of the job you’ll also do.

Katrina Le Roy, 2nd year student:

So when you think about university, you think that you have a lecture, sort of like four a day maybe, so maybe four hours. While at Wellington it’s sort of like 9 to 4.

Tess Maitland, 2nd year student:

When I started studying, it was a bit of a shock to the system because I was a school leaver. And most of the class is coming from Health Science or other studies. But it was really good in the sense that everything that we were learning was relevant to what we were going to be doing.

Katrina Le Roy:

You get to spend two weeks on clinical placement. It’s probably one of the few professions that you have clinical within your first year. So it’s really good for, like, right from the onset to have that sort of contact with the patient and sort of like seeing what it is you’re going to do in your profession.

Billie Mudie:

In the clinic, the students will always rotate around all of the areas that we work in. So they’ll be rostered into the CT area and into our planning department, where we design the best way to deliver the treatment, and then into the usual treatment machines as well.

Tess Maitland:

You’ve got to be an empathetic person, but also not let things bring you down.

Katrina Le Roy:

So you’re dealing with patients that do have cancer. They’re coming to you for treatment. They sort of come to you and they’re quite vibrant. So like, you’re smiling and happy, and you meet them with a smile, and you start to like build a really good rapport with them.

Tess Maitland:

It’s such a rewarding job. Most people, when I tell them about what I’m doing, they’re like, “That must be so sad.” But until you’re actually in here and actually see how much of, like, a happy environment it actually is, it’s something special. And a lot of people don’t really get to experience it.

Billie Mudie:

You also need to have an interest in science and the technology. The technology is always changing. It’s a very exciting area. So it’s those mixture of the two — the caring and empathy for the patient as well as the technology.

Katrina Le Roy:

You need to have really good team skills. You need to have good problem-solving skills. You need to be able to sort of identify what the issue is and what action you need to takes in order to resolve it.

Tess Maitland:

When I graduate, I’d like to work in New Zealand for a couple of years. I think the New Zealand medical standards are so high. It’d be really good to get some experience here for a couple of years and then look to travel.

Tim Kerrisk, Radiation Therapist:

I’ve been working for just on a year now. Everything becomes a lot more ingrained. You sort of don’t have to think about stuff in the same way you do as a student. But it’s actually really rewarding working with people, seeing them up to sort of just about 40 days in a row. So in that sense it’s really rewarding getting to know them.

Billie Mudie:

It’s one of the great things about our qualification is that we can work anywhere overseas really. New Zealand radiation therapists are highly sought after around the world. We have a highly regarded degree, and the door is open to most countries around the world to work.