The £5 million Department of Health investment in virtual learning environments for radiotherapy has seen new VERT software installed in departments and universities accross the UK.
Stacey Hine, second year post graduate in radiotherapy and oncology practice from Sheffield Hallum university reflects on her experiences using VERT as part of her pre-registration training.
As a student I have used the VERT system and one of these functions was to use the virtual linear accelerator for electron treatment set ups.
Electron set-ups are hard to master as you need to be able to demonstrate an awareness of how changing a number of parameters (the gantry, collimators and floor rotation) will affect how close you are to the target and its set-up borders.
There are a number of different electron set-ups to try, these are on differing sides and anatomical places on the patient. The first session helped me to gain more experience and confidence in achieving accurate ‘skin apposition’ with the electron applicator as I previously had not had much experience of this during my clinical placement.
As there was no real patient there I felt less pressured and I was given time along with guidance from the lecturer. As a result I found this practical skill easier to understand. In addition to this I have found, once back in clinical, that using VERT had given me a lot more confidence with electron set ups and I was much more willing to partake in the treatment, rather than stand back and watch. I knew how to position the couch more accurately to the target treatment area.
The VERT software can be used with different linear accelerator manufacturers. This has the added bonus of being able to gain experience of using machines which are not available in your clinical placement department. This will be of benefit when I qualify and consider working elsewhere.
The only drawback, I found, is that someone else had to move the screen to give you a different view point of the patient as the perspective on the patient cannot be changed by the person who is doing the set up.
This has been overcome with a motion detector in the 3D goggles which will automatically move the patient for you so you can look at angles above and below the applicator without having to rely on the other person moving it for you – although they are quite handy to have as you tend to want to step through the screen to look more closely as to where you are in relation to the target!
In my opinion the VERT system has aided my learning in a much more hands-on approach than I was initially expecting. It also helped with my experience so far in the clinical environment. I believe that VERT will subsequently benefit future students by giving them more confidence.
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