A radiation therapist is a type of physician who’s hired at an oncology department, working to help cure cancer conditions in patients of that department. Therapy involving radiation has been becoming increasingly popular lately, and thus the job of a radiation therapist has been enjoying increasingly greater rates of employment. Radiation therapists most commonly work by operating a linear accelerator, a machine specifically designed to be used in radiation treatment.
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Even though the job of a radiation therapist is technically a physician occupation, it doesn’t require a medical degree to obtain – instead, it requires several years of technical education, which in turn may require a college degree or a Bachelor’s degree in a specific field. In general, radiation therapists require a high degree of attentiveness to do their job properly, and may also require strong technical skills in order to properly operate the machinery involved in the job. Working as a radiation therapist can be challenging in many cases, according to those who practice it.
Radiation therapists earn moderately well, especially for a job that doesn’t require a medical degree – the median salary for 2009 was $77,000, and the job has various factors related to it that make it an even more attractive choice to many candidates. For example, it has good health bonuses attached to it, as well as a good degree of control over one’s working hours. On the other hand, the workload can be really severe in some cases, much heavier than most are prepared to handle.
