A member of academic staff from the School of Health Sciences made a presentation at an Open Day at Rosemere Cancer Centre last week.
Kerrie Woodhead, one of our Therapeutic Radiography and Oncology lecturers, was joined by clinical educators Paul Attwood and Shelley Shuttleworth at the event which was held at Preston Hospital.
The presentation gave prospective students, careers advisors and teachers an insight into therapeutic radiography, and the day-to-day life of the professionals who work in the field.
The centre, which was set up in 1996 with the help of Mike Kirby (our Senior Lecturer in Radiotherapy Physics), is one of the University’s key healthcare partners.
They support world-class cancer treatment throughout Lancashire and South Cumbria, working in partnership with local clinical staff, they support innovation by: funding cutting edge cancer equipment for the area; facilitating top quality professional training initiatives and backing local research projects.
The team gave visitors a unique and rare opportunity to have a guided tour of their clinical spaces, and carried out demonstrations on different radiotherapy equipment and machinery which enabled guests to formulate an appreciation of key aspects of a radiotherapists’ professional life as well as a general understanding of a cancer patient’s care journey.
Kerrie Woodhead said: “It’s unusual to be able to hold an event of this kind as the department is a busy clinical centre with patients booked in all day so we very rarely have time where machines are free to explore with prospective students.
“I think it was extremely beneficial for them to come and have a look at the equipment we use and have us explain to them, for example, how a patient’s treatment is planned using data from the CT scan and (in simple terms) how that treatment would work.
“We also took them to see VERT, the flight simulator for Linear Accelerator machines, which we use as a teaching method at The University of Liverpool during our simulation sessions. This was a great opportunity for them to really get a feel for what life would be like for them as a student with us as well.
“Overall, it was such a successful day with a great cohort of students, parents, careers advisors and educators.
"All of them now have a better understanding of Therapeutic Radiotherapy and Oncology – as a career and subject to study, but also from the eyes of a patient too which was really important for us.”