Radiation Oncologist
What the work is
Investigates, diagnoses and treats patients with cancer using radiation therapy for both curative and palliative purposes.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Examines patients to determine the nature and extent of disease after referral from general medical practitioners and other medical specialists
- Provides patient-centred plans and prescribes radiation to treat cancer
- Oversees radiation treatment and assesses treatment progress
- Manages side effects and symptoms of radiation
- Participates in multidisciplinary team meetings to develop treatment plans for complex cases
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a hospital imaging department that supports the emergency department, wards and local GPs. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A scan that looked ordinary gives a clear answer, and a patient gets the right care sooner
- A trainee finally sees what you have been pointing at on the screen
- A referring doctor rings back to say your report changed their plan
Hard days
- A queue of urgent scans grows while a worried family waits in the corridor for news
- You spot something nobody was looking for and have to decide how to raise it
- Long hours alone in a dim room with a screen, a phone and a pager that never stops
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 264936, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.