| CODE | RAD1081 | ||||||||||||||||
| TITLE | Clinical Radiotherapy Practice 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Radiography | ||||||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit presents first year radiography students with an introduction of the application of radiotherapy principles into practice. The study-unit is made up of tutorials, practical demonstrations, simulation rooms and mould room, clinical case scenarios, student centered learning and student managed learning, so that the students can relate the principles of radiotherapy, oncology, patient care and related areas to practice along with radiation protection as applied to radiotherapy. Students attend for 100 hours of clinical practice related to this study-unit during Semester 2 and the Summer Period. The clinical placement will integrate simulation of radiotherapy treatments using a Virtual Environment Radiotherapy Treatment (VERT), radiotherapy planning, and simulation of Mouldroom procedures such as immobilisation and shielding production. Academic staff from the University of Malta will monitor this practice to ensure the development of clinical skills. Study-Unit Aims: The aims of the study-unit are to enable students to achieve competency level 3 in a number of skills such as: - Provide relevant information regarding the treatment and pre-treatment procedures to the patient, applying appropriate communication strategies; - Interpret the radiotherapy prescription and treatment form; - Identify main roles of the radiographer in the treatment unit. In addition, the unit also aims to: - Introduce radiography students to: the role of radiographers in therapy and, policies and procedures of a radiotherapy department as part of radiotherapy practice; - Practice/simulate the delivery of radiotherapy treatments using a linear accelerator on a Virtual Environment Radiotherapy system (VERT) and a treatment planning system; - Enable the students to reach competency level 3 in correctly immobilising the patient; - Guide students with producing shielding devices used as part of the treatment in a Mould Room; - Enable the students to be knowledgeable of correct patient identification procedures using the three point identification procedure; and - Assist students with applying radiation protection in the radiotherapy department with regards to patients, staff and the general public. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Identify the importance of pre-treatment procedures including immobilisation and shielding; - Describe the process of patient setup, image verification and radiotherapy delivery using a linear accelerator; - Explain the basic principles behind the delivery of a radiotherapy treatment; - Describe the role of the radiographer and that of other health care professionals within the radiotherapy department; - Describe the radiation protection measures necessary to protect patients, staff and the general public; - Describe the production of x-ray and electron beams in the linear accelerator and the kilovoltage x-ray unit; and - Describe the properties of radiation beams used for radiotherapy treatment and explain the factors that affect the dose absorption when these beams interact with matter. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Reach competency level 3 by simulating the radiotherapy treatment using the VERT system; - Reach competency level 3 by simulating different radiotherapy beam setups using the treatment planning system; - Provide relevant information regarding the treatment and pre-treatment procedures to the patient, applying appropriate communication strategies, - Interpret the radiotherapy prescription and treatment form; - Correctly identify the patient according to local protocols (triple ID check); - Identify main roles of radiographer in the treatment unit; - Reach competency level 3 in producing shielding and immobilisation aids that are used as part of the treatment procedures; - Apply immobilisation, localisation, oncology, biology and physics principles to radiotherapy treatment delivery; and - Apply radiation protection principles to protect staff, patients and general public. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Washington, Charles M., Dennis T. Leaver, and Megan Trad. Washington & Leaver's Principles and Practice of Radiation Therapy. 5th ed. Elsevier, 2021. Supplementary Readings: - Brierley, J. D., Gospodarowicz, M. K., & Wittekind, C. (2016). TNM classification of malignant tumours. John Wiley & Sons. |
||||||||||||||||
| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Please note that a pass in each assessment component is obligatory for an overall pass mark to be awarded. | ||||||||||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Practical and Tutorials | ||||||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
|
||||||||||||||||
| LECTURER/S | Claudia Barrias Aradas |
||||||||||||||||
|
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
|||||||||||||||||