Radiography and Oncology degree

I'm interested in studying Radiography and oncology as my second degree, I've been a Physio for 15 years but haven't enjoyed it for many years now and feel I need to change career but still within healthcare, oncology has always interested me.I'm a mature student with 2 school age children, just wondering how I would juggle life and study at the same time, would this course be too much to take on especially on placements? Also is there the opportunity to attend lectures etc via zoom at home instead of attending Uni everyday, things have changed a lot since I studied my first degree. Any advice or info from current or recently qualified students would be amazing, thanks 😊

Hi, recently qualified therapeutic radiographer mature student here!

Radiotherapy was also my 2nd degree, nearly 30 years after my first. Is it doable? Yes. Is it hard work? Also yes. Having a supportive partner is a massive help - my wife allowed me to be quite selfish the last 3 years so I could get stuff done.

Being a mature student gives you a massive advantage. Having worked in healthcare for 15 years is also a massive advantage. Assuming you're currently part time? Obviously, being a student is full time. Depending on where you study, and where you're placed you may get 1 day a week "study day" when you're on placement.

My lectures went from 100% online in year 1 (covid) to about 80% in-person in my final year, with most of the online stuff being pre-recorded, but again this will vary from uni to uni. Even at the same uni, placement experiences vary wildly depending on where you're placed (I went to SHU btw).

Any questions, feel free to ask

I suppose the main question is now do you enjoy the job now you're qualified and was it worth all the 3 years training? I just don't want to try another career and then feel it wasn't the right choice 😬.

For me, it was absolutely the correct career choice - I spent 25 years working in Big Pharma but never saw a patient or the benefit of what we did. When I got made redundant I wanted something that was still scientific and technical, but also close to the patient and made a difference in peoples lives, and radiotherapy was perfect. You really get to know your patients in radiotherapy, seeing them every day for up to 7 or 8 weeks. This is offputting for some aspiring HCPs as they worry about becoming too attached to them, whereas for those of us in radiotherapy thats the best part!

I love what I do, and feel a real sense of pride and achievement in getting here. The biggest surprise for me was going in thinking the course would be full of physics nerds - it turns out that the course is actually full of people who want help patients with cancer, physics is just something they have to do along the way.