Blogs

My experience – Therapeutic Radiography at City

Tag Archives: #personalstatement

Presentations done!

Uncategorized , , .

It’s January. I have spent a substantial amount of time in the University library. My eyes are like computer screens and I never want to look at Microsoft powerpoint again. My plan to get everything done before Christmas fell by the wayside and everything was very much lastminute.com. DON’T DO IT! Although that being said I had a really good festive period. Presentations went well for me, I think, but practice especially for the group presentations, it was really obvious who had practiced and who hadn’t when we listened to each others’. The rationale for us having so many presentations as opposed to exams lies in what we will be doing once we are qualified which, for me as a mature student, I love as my exam technique is definitely not what it once was.

Celebrations for ending the exam period were somewhat short lived as the next day we were back into Health Policy lectures and we also have an interprofessional learning day with speech and language therapy. The key to health courses is interprofessional working. NHS trusts are hot on it and it makes up a large proportion of our placement portfolio work. Potential employers love to hear the term so any chance you get to attend an event or lecture is important to take it up; as we’re learning in our final year it looks good on your personal statement and these small things all go towards being more employable than your peers at the end of the year.

Lecturers have all started asking us if we are applying for jobs and although I always had the intention of getting into the race early, all of our other work still needs to be done and job applications seem to be getting pushed down an ever increasing list. Again it would appear time management is crucial! With all that said, I have done something pretty exciting this month…. I booked my flights for my elective placement down under, so come the end of May I will be in Australia for 5 weeks!! Woohoo! This is something I have been talking about since my 1st year so getting that booked makes graduating seem that much closer! So with that in mind my to do list for this week involves drafting some kind of personal statement for job applications. Watch this space for some handy hints as hopefully by my next blog post I will have completed a few applications and will have a better idea of what to include in a personal statement!

Life as a Radiotherapy Student: Welcome to Final Year!

Uncategorized .

Signing up to a healthcare degree you know what to expect; slightly longer academic years than other degree programmes and a shorter than average summer break… this year at just over 3 weeks, mine went by in a whirl! (Yes, this was a bit shorter than what you’d usually get … that’s because I had placement hours to make up… Note to you all… keep up with the 95% attendance rule) But I used those precious weeks away from uni to work and save some money for the upcoming year, no awesome summer travel plans for me this year, but I am on the home stretch, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

So now it is the 3rd year we’ve hit the ground running! Straight into lessons for the first two weeks and now I am back on placement, but you know what, I love it!

I can see myself getting more competent and confident and the staff in the department are constantly challenging me but also reminding me of how well I am doing. That’s the thing with a degree that is so placement heavy, you learn practically so all that theory you are learning and picking up you are using straight away. I know I still have a long way to go and I am still met with the same brain tiredness I had at the end of the day in my 1st year but I really do feel like it’s all going to be worth it! Don’t get me wrong… the self-doubt still creeps in at times! I am on a CT placement at the moment so it is anatomy central and I have realised I need to brush up on that! It may be the same profession but scanning patients for treatment planning is a completely different ball game to treating them which is what I was doing for the previous 3 weeks. But again, it may seem tough in the moment, but that in itself is another reason why I love Radiotherapy…. There are so many dimensions to the job that it constantly challenging you… I doubt I am ever going to get bored of this job like I have in others!

Something else that we have been asked to organise over the last few weeks is our elective placement. For once I was ahead of the game getting this sorted and started contacting people back in May. Having spent quite a lot of time in Australia in my 20s and having my niece and sister out there I had always intended to try and do some work experience in either Melbourne or Sydney so our electives are my perfect opportunity. I made contact with a past lecturer who was amazing and put me in contact with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. Fingers crossed everything works out as it looks like an amazing facility and I think I will learn a lot there. The plan is to head out there after I have handed in all my final projects and portfolio for 3-4 weeks!

It may sound like I am pretty busy but in reality I have been taking it a bit too easy though these last few weeks, concentrating on getting my groove back with placement… the truth is, I need to pull my finger out! With a group presentation, poster presentation, and an article presentation all due just after Christmas the work load is starting to pile up. The problem is that I am a bit of a social butterfly so between placement, part-time work and seeing friends I think I have been putting academic on the back burner…. Things are going to have to change and I think it will have to be this weekend 🙁

Find us

City, University of London

Northampton Square

London EC1V 0HB

United Kingdom

Back to top

City, University of London is an independent member institution of the University of London. Established by Royal Charter in 1836, the University of London consists of 18 independent member institutions with outstanding global reputations and several prestigious central academic bodies and activities.

Skip to toolbar