Medical Radiation Science

Overview

The Medical Radiation Science (MRS) program at the University of Newcastle has a strong history of providing students with the opportunity to do rural clinical placements. Many of the sites located within the UDRH region have supported Newcastle’s students for several decades and many Newcastle graduates are employed in hospitals and private practices throughout the region. The establishment of the UDRH has strengthened the essential and valuable bonds that exist between the University and the clinical service providers in the region so that students and their clinical supervisors have greater support during placements.

About the Program

There are two options for MRS students to consider in relation to the UDRH.

• Option 1: Full-Year or Semester-Long Attachment
  Students who are in the final year of the Diagnostic Radiography program may opt to undertake their full-time studies in Tamworth, attached to the UDRH. This is a voluntary attachment for which expressions of interest are called for each year from Year 2 students. Final year students who choose to undertake these attachments will study the same academic material as students based on the Callaghan campus. Lectures and tutorials are delivered either by the MRS academic or clinical staff based in Tamworth or via videoconferencing. The UDRH provides on-line access to Blackboard, the University Library and other electronic resources.
  
  Students on full-year or semester-long attachments will be encouraged to undertake additional clinical experience at either Tamworth Rural Referral Hospital or Castlereagh Imaging. This may be timetabled as part of their program, depending on the course requirements. Otherwise, clinical blocks for these students will follow the same release pattern as for all other students. Tamworth-based students, however, will be encouraged to do their clinical placements elsewhere in order to increase the diversity of their clinical experience. They will be given access to the same range of clinical centres as all other Year 3 students.
  
  
• Option 2: Rural Clinical Placement
  Students in both the Diagnostic Radiography and Nuclear Medicine programs can undertake rural clinical placements in the region. All diagnostic radiography students are required to do at least one clinical placement in a rural location as part of their program. It could be argued that students would be wise to choose to do their rural placement in a region where the University of Newcastle has established a presence and where staff members are relatively close at hand. There are a large number of diagnostic radiography clinical centres in the region that a suitable for students at various stages of the program, as listed below.
  
  The UDRH region has only one full-time nuclear medicine facility, at Tamworth Rural Referral Hospital. Mid-North Coast Diagnostic Imaging, at Taree, provides a limited range of nuclear medicine examination types. Students in all three years of the Nuclear Medicine program can complete clinical placements in Tamworth, with UDRH support.

MRS Clinical Centres

There are 21 population centres in the UDRH region where medical imaging services are provided. In 12 of these radiographers are employed in either public hospitals or private practices or both. The remaining 9 are smaller communities with limited remote x-ray operator services, with or without a visiting (sessional outreach) service provided by radiographers. Tamworth, Taree, Armidale, Moree and Inverell have a mixture of both public and private service providers, while Forster has a private medical imaging service only.

The following table lists the MRS clinical centres in the UDRH region in alphabetical order by place name. Also listed are the imaging modalities available, the approximate number of full-time MRS personnel employed, and an estimate of the number of examinations performed daily at each centre. The far right column indicates the suitability of each facility for students from the various years of the MRS program.

Clinical centre	Imaging modalities	Years suitable
Tamworth Rural Referral Hospital†	General X-ray, Theatre & Mobiles, Flouro., CT, U/S, Angio. & Cardiac Cath, Mamm. (Breast Screen)	DR - Years 1,2,3 NM - Year 1,2,3
Castlereagh Imaging, Tamworth*†	General X-ray, Fluoro, Theatre, CT, U/S, Mamm., MRI, DEXA BMD	DR – Years 1, 2, 3
Mid-North Coast Diagnostic Imaging, Taree*†	General X-ray, Fluoro, Theatre & Mobiles, CT, U/S, Mamm., NM	DR – Years 1, 2, 3
Mid-North Coast Diagnostic Imaging, Forster*	General X-ray, Fluoro, Theatre & Mobiles, CT, U/S.	DR – Years 1, 2, 3
Armidale Radiology*†	General X-ray, Fluoro, CT, U/S, Mamm.	DR – Years 2, 3
Armidale Rural Referral Hospital†	General X-ray, Flouro., Theatre & Mobiles, US	DR – Years 1, 2
Moree District Health Service	General X-ray, Fluoro, Theatre & Mobiles, CT*, U/S*, Mamm*.	DR – Years 1, 2
Manning Rural Referral Hospital, Taree†	General X-ray, Theatre & Mobiles, Flouro., U/S	DR – Years 1, 2
Gunnedah District Health Service	General X-ray, Theatre & Mobiles	DR – Years 1, 2
Narrabri District Health Service	General X-ray, Mobiles, US*	DR – Years 1, 2
Inverell District Health Service †	General X-ray, Mobiles	DR – Years 1, 2
Inverell Diagnostic Imaging†	General X-ray, CT, U/S.	DR – Years 1, 2
Gloucester Soldiers Memorial Hospital	General X-ray, Mobiles	DR – Years 1, 2
Glen Innes District Health Service	General X-ray, Mobiles & Theatre, US*	DR – Year 1
Tenterfield Community Hospital	General X-ray, Mobiles, US (2 days/wk) *	DR. Year 1

* Indicates service provided by private practice.
† Students may do placement between the local hospital and private practice.

Program Contacts

Dr Tony Smith (Academic matters and general enquiries)
Senior Lecturer in Medical Radiation Science

Ph: (02) 6767 8464

Email: tony.smith@hnehealth.nsw.gov.au