BY ADELLE LARMOUR

Laurentian University’s Radiation Therapy program has accomplished two of its primary goals: making training in this profession more accessible to students in Northern Ontario, and retaining health-care professionals in northern and rural settings.

Offered in collaboration with the Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences in Toronto, and now in its fifth year, the program is only the second fully accredited degree/diploma Radiation Therapy program in Ontario. Prior to the commencement of Laurentian’s program in 2003, anyone interested in studying Radiation Therapy had to apply to the Michener Institute, which offers the course in collaboration with the University of Toronto.

To date, Laurentian has had two graduating classes in the Radiation Therapy program.

The first cohort, graduating in 2007, had an unprecedented 100 per cent pass rate on the national exams. Graduates simultaneously received a full Honours Bachelor of Science degree from Laurentian University and a diploma in Radiation Therapy from the Michener Institute. In 2007, all 12 graduates obtained employment, and 11 remained in the North.

Statistics compiled from 2003 to 2007 show that 57 per cent of students applying to the program come from Northern Ontario.

Radiation Therapy is often confused with Medical Radiation Technology, which focuses more on X-rays, ultrasounds and diagnostics.

Radiation Therapy is “very distinct,” explained Dr. Dianne Cameron, co-ordinator of Laurentian’s Radiation Therapy program. “Radiation therapists treat cancer and work only in cancer centres. It is a unique profession in that it combines an aptitude in the sciences and technology with a passion for dealing with cancer patients and their families. It’s truly a high-tech, high-touch profession.”

Within a cancer centre, they typically work as part of a team, which may include oncologists, radiation oncology nurses, social workers and radiation physicists. They work closely with the radiation oncologist and physicist in the oncology department on a treatment plan. While the oncologist prescribes the required treatment, the radiation therapist delivers it and does frontline counselling with patients.

In 2001, Toronto’s Michener Institute approached Laurentian to set up a northern edition of the program. Cameron said it was felt there was a need to recruit students from Northern Ontario who would want their fourth-year clinical placements and possibly future employment in smaller northern cancer treatment centres like Thunder Bay, Sudbury and Ottawa.

Implemented and taught in collaboration with the Michener Institute, it parallels the original program established with the University of Toronto, only on a smaller scale. The first-year intake is a maximum of 18 students. Cameron described it as a “highly selective process,” requiring a strong foundation in science and math and a minimum 70 per cent grade average.

“We get about 120 applicants each year,” she said. After a weeding-out process, approximately 40 are selected for interviews.

Cameron and two colleagues - one from the Sudbury Cancer Centre’s Radiation Therapy department and the other from the Michener Institute – conduct interviews at the Laurentian campus over a three-day period at the end of April every year.

“It is a strong indication of their motivation if candidates are willing to travel to Sudbury for the interviews,” said Cameron.

The intense, four-year course requires 153 credits, compared to a regular 120-credit program. Essentially, it is a five-year course calendar crammed into four years, requiring students to continue with courses in the spring and summer.

“Our students are passionate about their program and very high achievers, frequently winning major national scholarships,” Cameron said. Letizia Yiu, now in a fourth year clinical placement, was awarded the prestigious 2007-08 Millennium Excellence Award from the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation. Fourth-year student Corinia Geteianc received the Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship from the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists. Third-year student Sheila Sze (now in fourth year) and second-year student Muhammad Ali Sarfraz (now in third year) won the best poster award last spring at the Toronto Radiation Medicine Conference.

The fourth year of the program is a 48-week placement with extensive clinical training at a participating Cancer Centre, usually in Sudbury, Thunder Bay or Ottawa. During this time, students take three clinical courses, as well as a research and a health-care systems course. The program curriculum is more or less evenly divided between Laurentian-owned and Michener-owned courses, including some that are delivered via videoconference.

“It is a nice sharing of resources,” Cameron said. “The two programs (Toronto and Sudbury) have the same outcome and level of training, but the way they get there is a little different. It allows us to have a northern focus, sensitive to the bilingual/tricultural needs of regional francophone and aboriginal populations.”

A joint advisory council with membership from Laurentian University, the Michener Institute and the University of Toronto meets annually, working collaboratively on course development and new initiatives.

The development of a French-language Radiation Therapy program is currently underway in order to serve the Francophone student population and Francophone patients.

“It is extremely important to increase the French-language content of the program so we can properly service that kind of need over the next few years,” Cameron said.

Another initiative mandated by the federal and provincial governments is developing curriculum for interprofessional training. Its purpose is to foster better patient-centered health care, and improve interprofessional relationships. Available to nursing, radiation therapy and other students in professional health programs, including medical students, Interprofessional Pathophysiology was offered last year at Laurentian. Team-taught, the students learn about each other’s professions by working together on case studies.

This winter, Laurentian is developing an Interprofessional Clinical Research Methods course geared toward students performing research in a clinical setting.

www.laurentian.ca
www.michener.ca