Day 2: June 26

     Yesterday was alot of information to take in for 6 hours. Today I decided to sit with the radiation therapists and see what their day-to-day job entailed. It is better to become a therapist and get working experience before moving up to a dosimetrist, so I figured this was a good place to start.
    
      There are currently four female radiation therapists at the hospital. They do most of the hands-on interaction with the patients. The therapists are responsible for setting up the treatment room for each patient and programming the maching to give the patient the correct dose of radiation. Each dose is based on the treatment plan put together by the dosimetrist, physicist, and oncologist. Each plan is tailored to each patient and the type and location of the cancer that they have. Most of the patients at the hospital are prostate and breast cancer patients.

Day 1: June 25

Day One was quite interesting. I met all of the staff of the center. There were dosimetrists, radiation therapists, nurses, oncologists, clerical people, and a medical physicist. All the members of the team work together to carry patients from beginning diagnosis to ending treatments. There are several machines that can deliver radiation beams to provide the accurate amount of dosage to each individual patient. Over the next few weeks, I plan to spend time with each member of the oncology team and see what the everyday job is like. Week One will be spent with the radiation therapists.