Medical imaging at university of exeter

Ronnie16

Heyy

Whos starting medical imaging at Exeter this September?

Reply 1

Masterwints

I am! Just accepted it as my first choice! Any ideas on accommodation? :smile:

University of Exeter

Exeter

Reply 2

QuentinM

Universities Forum Helper

Not had a reply in a while....congrats to both of you for getting in!

You'll mainly be based at St Luke's campus, as its part of the medical school now, what with that new building (South Cloisters) and proximity to the hospital. So the best accomodation is NOT Streatham Campus accomodation. Rowancroft is the closest University run accomodation to the Med School, and St James' is in the middle of town in case you dont want to be too far away. Ideally you don't want anywhere too far away from there.

Reply 3

katecatfish

Original post by Masterwints

I am! Just accepted it as my first choice! Any ideas on accommodation? :smile:

I'm currently a first year a Exeter doing medical imaging. Most people live in Rowancroft or James Owen court. Rowancroft is a 5 minute walk to uni and about a 15 minute walk into town. its a much quieter accommodation in terms of studying during the day and being away from the town. Rowancroft mews tends to host a lot of house parties which is good fun and a high street 1 minute walk away with local co-op (great for student discounts) loads of takeaways, pharmacy and doctors. The lidl is a 10-15 minute walk away which is really useful.

James Owen court is at the top of the city centre and is about a 10-15 minute walk into uni, and about 20 minutes to streatham if youre planning on doing any sociteties up there (therwise its a 35 minute walk from rowancroft, but you can always get the free shuttle in the morning/ evening or the D or H bus just over the road ffor £1.70). James Owen is pretty nice too and next to the local night club. You get quite a lot of medics staying here too.

There is a free shuttle which runs morning and evening from st davids train station so a few people live down in point exe (but there isnt really much going on that side of town) and I had a few friends that lived over on streatham too and they said the walk was fine, but again there is a free shuttle of the D or H bus if you need.

Hope this helps and well done for getting an offer. Its a really great course!

Reply 4

Emmymuppet

I'm a mature student (23) and previous Med School attendee (3 years) starting Medical Imaging at Exeter in September. I'm just waiting on an occupational health appointment on Friday the 9th to turn my conditional offer into an unconditional.
I currently work in the NHS in the operating theatres and I work with radiographers here, in angio and in A&E every day if anybody has any questions I can answer from my perspective. I'll be living in my own flat right next to St. Luke's/the hospital and I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in.
After leaving med school in Leicester last January (I failed my Phase 1 exams) I had to get a crappy Band 2 HCA job to make money and, y'know, eat food and live in a house. I've been working a year at St. Mary's Hospital in London in surgery. Even though the NHS can be awful, I decided I still wanted to be a part of it, and when I was looking around at my colleagues for roles I could aspire to it was radiography that grabbed me. So I applied late through UCAS Extra and now I'm set to go to one of the best unis in the country. Things do work out in the end!
I wanted to say good luck to school leavers with your exams, I remember the day well and you've done better than you think! Looking forward to meeting all of you in September. :smile:

- Em

Reply 5

Vivivivi

Original post by Emmymuppet

- Em

Hi em.
thank you for writing about your experiences. Do you think medical imaging will be boring in any way? It's inspiring that you have applied for the course after you have had exposure to different departments in the hospitals. This encourages me although I am nervous that looking at images will be a bit boring. What do you think? Thankyou.

Reply 6

Emmymuppet

Original post by Vivivivi

Hi Vivivivi - so sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I barely ever check my TSR account any more!
I think the thing to remember with medical imaging is that it's not sitting in front of an x-ray all day and looking at it. For example:
-There will be many different modalities of imaging to experience: Plain X-ray, CT scanning, MRI, Ultrasound, fluoroscopy, each with their own science and practical skills to accompany.
- You don't just look at images! You need to have the patient skills to adapt to a huge variety of patients, from children who fidget and are confused and in pain, the elderly with mobility issues, trauma patients with other injuries, etc. There's a lot of quick thinking and adapting technique.
- The equipment! Radiographers are responsible for operating some seriously cool tech. You'll need to learn how each different machine works, how to adjust the settings for the best diagnostic image for a huge variety of injuries and pathologies.
- The post-processing. This is the 'sitting at the screen' part you're talking about. Radiographers need the knowledge of normal radiographic anatomy and common pathology in order to judge if the images they've taken are suitable for the doctors to make diagnoses. There are a number of tools for each modality to edit and process the images to learn about.

Related to just my everyday work in theatres, we often have a radiographer operating a C-arm in orthopaedic cases. They have to know theatre practice, sterile technique, and also keep up with what the surgeons are doing and take images (we have one surgeon who just shouts 'Flash!' whenever he wants a screen taken and the poor RT has to keep up). They have to adjust the positioning of the C-arm often to get the views the surgeon needs because they're drilling nails and plates into patients' bones!

When I went around with the mobile (a small machine that does AP chest x-rays on the ward for patients who are too ill to travel down to radiology), it's another story. Chronically ill patients with respiratory issues who pose complex positioning challenges. One baby in the PICU. An ITU patient who is intubated and unresponsive. For each screen, the radiographer has to not only position the patient, adjust the settings (in particular for the baby, who is much smaller than an adult!), ensure the staff and nearby patients are at a proper distance so as not to dose them, etc.

As radiographers progress in their careers, they can specialise and take extra qualifications. They can become 'Reporting Radiographers' (title differs across Trusts), who are trained to actually interpret the images they take and make a report. They're part of the MDT along with the doctors, and their expertise diagnoses patients and guides treatment and management. It's my understanding that Band 8a Consultant Radiographer posts are already here or at least v close to starting?

MRI is very tech-focused. The RT has to fiddle with a billion settings on the incredibly complex computing equipment to take the proper image. But they do get to sit down and have coffee, which I'm sure most RTs would die for after a busy day on their feet!
CT RTs again have lots to do, they often have to cannulate and administer contrast, there are doctors wafting about doing CT-guided procedures like spinal steroid injections... and ultrasound RTs have to interpret the ultrasound they're taking then and there, they have to develop a lot of expertise in order to diagnose all manner of things. Ultrasound isn't just for pregnant women! They check all sorts of things, joints, blood flow, abdominal organs, you name it, they'll probe it!

I hope I've conveyed to you that there's so much more to do than staring at a screen. I've got my confirmed place by now and I'm so excited to start. There's a lot to learn, theoretically and practically, and a lot of scope for advancement within Radiography. If you're interested, I beg to to figure out some work experience, it's totally invaluable at giving you a snapshot of what it's like to be an RT.

All the best!
Em