Academic Progams - How to become a Certified Radiation Therapy Technologist

There are many options when considering education and becoming a Registered Radiation Therapy Technologist RT (T): Certificate, Associate’s degree, or Bachelor’s degree. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2010-2011, a certificate, associate’s degree or bachelor’s degree is “generally” required to become a Radiation Therapy Tech. I put generally in quotations because some states do not require Radiologic Technologists to be licensed, so RT (T)'s can be trained on the job as well. “In 2009, 33 States required radiation therapy tech's to be licensed by a State accrediting board. Licensing requirements vary by State, but many States require applicants to pass the ARRT certification examination” (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Since I am in a Radiologic Technology program, I am going to focus on furthering education and becoming certified after complete of the RT program. Once a Radiologic Technologist has passed the ARRT (American Registry of Radiologic Technologists) exam, he or she can apply to an accredited Radiation Therapy program. The certificate program is 12-months in duration and concludes with the passing of the ARRT exam for Radiation Therapy. Most programs include courses in patient care, dosimetry calculations, fabrication of beam modification devices, low-volume high-risk procedures, and the application of radiation.

In 2009, there were 102 accredited radiation therapy programs in the U.S (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Accredited Radiation Therapy programs are listed on the JRCERT website at http://www.jrcert.org/cert/results.jsp.