What's the difference between Radiation Sciences and Radiography and Medical Imaging, and which one is more geared towards treating cancer patients?
Hi there! I’m currently in third year of radiography at Monash. Radiography is more about taking medical imaging procedures, such as x-rays, CT, MRI, mammograms, operation work, trauma scans and procedures under fluoroscopy such as angiograms and injections. It’s a 4 year bachelor/honours degree, you get an internship and a lot of practical experience. Personally I think it’s a great career!
Radiation sciences is a bachelor degree that comes under the bachelor of health sciences- this encompasses four primary courses. I believe first year is a fairly general year of health, while second and third year look more at the process of radiation therapy. Please do note that you do not graduate as a professional with this degree. It will enable you to enter a master of radiation therapy which will allow you to practice, but you do also get some practical experience in the later years of this course. However, from this course you can also masters in practical sonography, or even get into either masters from the radiography course. I believe now radiation science is commonly used for students as a pathway into radiography (as biomedical is to med), but if you’re looking at radiation therapy (which means treating cancer patients), it is a great option to give you experience and background in the field. I would highly recommend doing a tour of some radiology clinics or departments as well as radiation therapy and see which field you’d prefer. Radiation therapy is a very small field but I believe is expanding so do some research ask questions of people studying (feel free to pm me I know lots of people in both degrees I can put you in contact with!) to see what path you want to take. I’m looking at radiation therapy after working in radiography for some years too so if you’d like any more information don’t hesitate to ask!
Ultimately it’s up to you, the marks for radiography have also gone up insanely haha and if you are looking at entering RT early, having that background experience with the radiation sciences course would be a great option to consider