Radiotherapy - what next?

[Whatisitnowhuh]

I completed a degree in Radiotherapy a few years ago and have since drifted into various roles and I am currently working in the public sector in a non health related job.
With everything that's going on with covid-19 I am concerned i dont have any real job security and would like to get into a position that is more secure.
I dont want to go back into Radiotherapy however i would like to work in some kind of health related field. My concern is Radiotherapy is very specific and I dont think there are many roles I can easily transfer into.
I am considering going into analysis but although I am happy to retrain and complete courses I do not want to go back to university.

Any suggestions on careers or courses would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

How about working for one of the manufacturers? There are all kinds of jobs from helpdesk, training, process consultancy, regulatory, clinical data analysis - all sorts of roles for which you need a background or understanding of radiotherapy

Thank you for your reply :) what do you mean by one of the manufacturers sorry

I assume he means of medical equipment

Clinical trial data monitoring for pharmaceutical company? A lot of pharma outsource to trial monitoring companies like PPD, quintiles etc

Elekta, IBA, VisionRT, Varian, OIS, OSL QFix all have UK staff - all provide equipment for radiotherapy.

What didn't you like about being a radiographer?

Ah yes ofcourse that makes sense thank you. The main reason was the monotony of it all with no real autonomy on how or what treatment was delivered.

Hohofortherobbers would I need to undertake further training to go into data monitoring?

Do you mean radiography? Or do you mean radiotherapy? What drew you to the degree in the first place as it is quite specialist and a bit like training to be accountant and then saying you didn’t really like numbers. I’m not sure what other work you could do- Macmillan or cancer care related advisory work?

You could teach. Either lecture at University. Or teach primary/secondary School. You would need to do a PGCE.

What about nuclear medicine? Kind of a sideways step from radiotherapy

Sorry OP, I know this is off topic, but I would you be willing to say why you don’t want to work in Radiotherapy?
Just this is something I am thinking of doing in later life once I have had DC and would appreciate an insight.

I did the same thing but went into health commissioning. I love it! My main issue with it was the lack of autonomy but now I have loads and I can work flexibly around my family

Therapeutic Radiography not diagnostic. That's my concern its very specific and as I don't want to pursue it all the money and time spent doing the degree has gone down the drain. I was drawn to it because it was a health profession and I would be doing something to help people. But during my degree I worked in different hospitals and saw the variation in treatment delivered depending on where people lived/how much money they had and realised I wont make a real impact - coupled with the lack of autonomy in creating treatment plans has put me off pursuing it as a career.

I left radiotherapy after 18 years. I did a training year with senior management for a year and got offered a job on the back of it. I now project manager various things round the hospital. Mostly upskilling the workforce.

The more I progressed in radiotherapy the more autonomy I got. It’s monotonous at the start, but I made sure I rotated round the department and centres. I got into a senior management role. But the opportunity to take a year out come about so I jumped.

I didn’t realise I had transferable skills, due to the specialised nature, but I do. Coming from a technical background, actually helped. I know lots of friends who ended up working in project type jobs from radiotherapy.

PrincessBiscuit that sounds really interesting I gave PM'd you
Thank you all for your suggestions it is really appreciated!

Ginbunny1212 do you think I would still be able to get into those project management roles without continuing in Radiotherapy or is that specialised knowledge required?
I have looked into Prince2 - do you think this would be worth completing?

I'd be a bit wary of completing more qualifications without being sure what you want. Prince2 is a bit old fashioned these days, it's not a waste of time or money but doesn't necessarily make you employable, also you might not really like working on projects. Depending on the project role it can be monotonous.

What sort of analysis would you find interesting? I work as an analyst and most of my skills have come from working in different business environments rather than qualifications.

Specialist knowledge wasn’t needed for me. Just knowing the nhs and being able to manage my projects and a team. I do nothing with radiotherapy now. No prince 2 either. I was lucky and took a leap of taith

What do you do in radiotherapy? A therapy radiographer, tech, onc?

Sorry just rtft. What about quality management?

Are there no ct sim jobs going? I loved it in there. Loved the mould room too.

Or you could become the gamekeeper and apply to be part of the CQC IRMER inspectorate (if you are in England obvs!)

I'd agree with GinBunny that there is plenty of scope for more autonomy as you progress. I know a lot of consultant radiographers, and they have really extended roles running their own review clinics, running things like brachytherapy services as radiographer led, doing service development, and of course doing research. Someone I know well is currently doing her PhD part time, and still clinical the other half of the week and she has a lot of automony

Or you could become the gamekeeper and apply to be part of the CQC IRMER inspectorate (if you are in England obvs!)

Or equivalent inspectorates in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland.

I worked in different hospitals and saw the variation in treatment delivered depending on where people lived/how much money they had and realised I wont make a real impact

I find that quite an odd reason. Of course you'll make an impact, effective treatment can literally make the difference between life and death for many patients, how can that be anything other than a real impact?

I know the NHS is far from perfect, but it's great strength is that treatment is without cost at the point of delivery, so it's not like the US, where people will literally die or be bankrupted by their medical bills if they don't have insurance. Or are you outside the UK?

Sorry, forgot to ask, are there any routes into medical physics/clinical science for you as a qualified radiotherapist?