Clinical Measurement

Can someone please give me information on this course thinking of doing it in September! I'm not mad into science but I do enjoy Anatomy and Phisiology!
Thanks!

Trance

I don't do it but I have a lot of modules in common with them and know people doing it.

They spend most of their time doing anatomy, histology and physiology throughout the 4 years. In first year you'd be doing a lot of general science though. General chemistry and physics lectures with labs throughout first year and maths modules in years 1 and 2. If you want to look at the module titles...
https://selfservice.dit.ie/modules/web_sos.sos_search
Academic year - 200809
Programme - DT229
Stage - Whichever year you want to look at 1-4

About 25 to 30 in each year group, which they divide into two for some modules and labs - majority women. Kevin Street is a kip.

Thanks for the reply. Being honest, I am only interested in it because I don't have the points for Medicine! But I will look further into it!

Thephantomsmask

Most of the course is physics based focussing on bio instrumentation. There's a good grounding in physics, chemistry and biology in first year for people who haven't done it before. Some biology/physiology modules have been dropped or better split between first and second year but having done a bsc. in anatomy in NUI Galway I found the quality of the lectures to be pretty poor in comparison and ended up using my own notes from my degree but that's a personal opinion. There are maths and computer modules in 1st and 2nd year and 2nd year has four medical instrumentation modules along with pharmacology and further physiology. 2nd year is the hardest year of the course due to the huge workload before entering the hospital in 3rd year. Really you learn the anatomy and physiology of the body systems appropriate to your specialist subjects in 3rd and 4th year when out on placement as everything fits in together. 3rd year is all hospital based with 3 x 8 week placements in three of the four subjects. 4th year is a further 14 week placement in one subject with three instrumentation and a pharmacology module along with further exams in specialist subjects. The job is very different from medicine, it's a technical role that requires knowledge of both the body function being tested along with how the machine used works to give high quality results for interpretation. On the plus side technicians start on a good wage, currently 40K, and work office hours Monday to Friday, no nights or 36hr shifts like nurses and doctors have to do.

ash!

hi im currently in leaving cert and thinking of doing this course next year!however maths is not one of my strong points is it in the course much and is it difficult?...any help would be great thanks a million!

Thephantomsmask

It's in both first and second year. First year and the first half of second year would basically be the honours leaving cert course with some extra topics added in, the second half of second year is statistics. I found it ok and maths wouldn't be a strong point for me aside from the practical stuff like geometry. I found some things hard but there was enough diversity on the subject matter not to have to rely solely on things I didn't like. There's no real way around doing maths for at least one year with most science courses unfortunately. Best of luck with the course, it's very enjoyable once you start getting out into the hospitals.

ash!

well im doing ordinary maths for the leaving and im struggling with them so im sure id find it very difficult if i did decide to do the course!thanks a million anyways for your help!

Pink Feather

Im in my leaving cert year now and really really want to do clinical measurement next year!!
Maths defo not one my best subjects though! i'd be able to get the B3 in ordinary level maths alright but is that good enough to be able to understand the course!
And i have never done physics before? would i be at a complete disadvantage then?
Do they have extra support for students who have extra difficulty with maths and physics?
I hear its quite a full timetable? can you elaborate on that...like how long would typical college day be?
And also if i did decide after a year or two that the course was too difficult for me do you think the college would allow me to transfer into a dofferent course within my abilities??

Sorry i know thats and awful long question but if anyone could help i'd very much appreciate it! Thanks:)

DonkeyPokerTour

Pink Feather wrote: »

Im in my leaving cert year now and really really want to do clinical measurement next year!!
Maths defo not one my best subjects though! i'd be able to get the B3 in ordinary level maths alright but is that good enough to be able to understand the course!
And i have never done physics before? would i be at a complete disadvantage then?
Do they have extra support for students who have extra difficulty with maths and physics?
I hear its quite a full timetable? can you elaborate on that...like how long would typical college day be?
And also if i did decide after a year or two that the course was too difficult for me do you think the college would allow me to transfer into a dofferent course within my abilities??

Sorry i know thats and awful long question but if anyone could help i'd very much appreciate it! Thanks:)

I don't do the course but am in DIT Kevin Street. I can give you some info.

DIT do have extra support services for maths, I'm not sure if they have any for Physics, its not a subject I have.

The 1st year time table in Semester 1 (Sept to Dec) 2009 was:
Monday: 9 - 19.30 with a break from 14.00-17.00
Tuesday: 10 - 18.00 with a break from 13.00-14.00
Wednesday: 9 - 18.00 with two breaks 11.00-11.30 & 13.30 - 15.00
Thursday: 9 - 16.00 with two breaks 10.00 - 11.00 & 12.00 - 14.00
Friday: 9 - 13.00 with no break

So its a busy enough timetable, akin to an engineers timetable, but I've seen far worse. At one stage my timetable was 9.00-21.00 with 2 x 1hr breaks. Nightmare.

DIT as an institute is quite flexable in allowing people to change courses. Usually though they will stipulate that you must pass your exams and your labs in the course your leaving. This is to sort of "prove" to them that your willing to work hard in the course your moving to.

Aoife21

Hi,

I'm a third year student in Clinical Measurement. It's a great course if you like science. I'm sorry to tell you that its very maths and physics heavy. I'm not saying you can't do it if you're bad at maths and have never done physics, but you'd really have to be prepared to work..
Fisrt year time table is really long.. Nearly 30 lecture hours.. It reduces to 20 in second year.. And you're on work placement in 3rd year.. And you're all over the place in 4th year.
There are free maths grinds in the college, but nothing for physics. I don't want to put you off because it is a great course, and a really nice job. There's other subjects that you might be good at, freeing you up to study for maths and physics. Like chemistry, physiology and practical work.
The classes are small and we try our best to get to know the students in other years, so there's always help.

Any other questions give me a shout

[Deleted User]

hi all
Great to see some positive and useful information on the Clinical Measurement course.

I have been made redundant and am looking at my options. I am considering going back to college and starting afresh but I have a family and mortgage so I am not too sure just yet; if I could find some solid details on the number of jobs available in Dublin annually, I would be in a better place to decide.

To those of ye that have completed the course and found jobs, was it difficult to find jobs or were there enough to go around? i.e. would you say that most the graduates to date are employed? Are there certain areas/options in the course that have better employment prospects?

If I did do the course I would plan to start Sept 2012 and then will have 2 toddlers under the age of three. I'd say that realistically I would only have about 2 hours a day MAX to study!!! Is this feasible

Thanks in advance for any info
HMU

Aoife21

Hi howmuchunder,

The course is 4 years so just remember nobody knows what the state of employment will be. I am among the graduating class of 2011 and have yet to find a job. However, it really is dependant on which discipline you specialise in. I specialised in Neurophysiology with a minor in Respiratory and these disciplines are saturated right now. Nearly everyone who specialised in Cardiology has a job now but very few if any have gotten a permanent position. There are plenty of vacancies in hospitals right now but unfortunatley with the state of the country the hospitals are not allowed to hire and all you can hope for is maternity cover. Thats not to say it wont change over the next few years. So if you do decide to do this course pick your specialty wisely. Vascular has the most jobs because no one really specialises in it (only one graduated this year specialising). Cardiology will always have places but theres great competition for the positions as most people in the class will pick cardiology.

2 hours a day to study is loads but remember the hours are not regular in college. You can 9am to 9pm one day and 9am till 12pm another day. You HAVE to attend your labs and you'll have maybe 4 a week. If you miss these they'll fail you. I dont want to put you off the course because its really interesting and the job at the end is fantastic but because you have young children I dont want to sugar coat anything. The days are long, the work is tough. It gets better in 2nd year and in 3rd and 4th year you do a 35 hour week with the hours depending on your placement. You'll have a lot of exams practical and written and in 4th year you'll have your thesis. So if you make a plan and know what discipline you'll want to do and stick to a routine you should be ok. The end result is worth it. A 9-5 monday to friday job thats completly different everyday with opportunities to better yourself and your pay packet with a starting salary of roughly 31,000euro.

DIT offer great help. the lecturers will always do their best to help and because the class is small everyone gets on well. If you're looking through courses maybe even give medical physics a look. We share some classes with them in the beginning. Their job is to maintain, repair and alter medical machines I think and they too work within the hospital.

It'll be a gamble as to whether or not you'll get a job. Many graduates have had to leave the country to find work. There are 20 graduating this year and of that 20 I'd estimate abouy 13 are now employed, with only 2 or 3 at most with a permanent postion.

Hope I was some help, I'll try answer any other questions you have.

Twin2

Hi,
I'm currently studying clinical measurement and I'm going into second year, if anybody could provide some info about second year such as work load, hours spent studying, difficulty with subjects etc. I would be more than grateful!!! For anybody filling out the CAO I would strongly recommend that you would consider clinical measurement as a course option! It is a fantastic course with many opportunities and despite the world wide recession there are jobs( permanent/temporary) available for clinical measurement scientists weather at home or abroad! I must also highlight that this course is heavily science based as suggested by the name! core subjects in first year are physics, chemistry, maths ,physiology,IT and biology! i studied chemistry and biology in leaving cert and I did have honors maths! I did not have a background in physics but I tried my best with it and worked hard at it and i got a first class honor so it can be done if u work hard! others in my class struggled with chemistry because they did not have a background in it and often they missed a few lectures here and there I would suggest if u do not have a background in a particular subject try not to miss lectures and form a study group. I've seen in previous comments that people are mentioning maths or worried about the maths aspect of the course, I can only comment on the maths for first year but in general the majority of my class faired ok with the maths exams be its a step up from leaving cert especially ordinary level maths so I'm told by my friends in the course who had ordinary maths but they worked at it and they passed their exams! tutorials are in conjunction with the lectures and a maths resource centre is on campus and the lectures are very approachable!! if u do have honors maths than you have no worries whats so ever as its basically a repeat of the a and b parts of the questions on the exam papers say from 2004 to 2011 or there
abouts the questions are similar anyway! the time table is fairly full in the first semester , the second semester is not so bad there are a good few breaks in it but still finishing between 4 and 6 in the evening.

PatsyR

Aoife21 wrote: »

Hi howmuchunder,

The course is 4 years so just remember nobody knows what the state of employment will be. I am among the graduating class of 2011 and have yet to find a job.

Just wondering if you found a job in this yet?

christine1234

Pink Feather wrote: »

Im in my leaving cert year now and really really want to do clinical measurement next year!!
Maths defo not one my best subjects though! i'd be able to get the B3 in ordinary level maths alright but is that good enough to be able to understand the course!
And i have never done physics before? would i be at a complete disadvantage then?
Do they have extra support for students who have extra difficulty with maths and physics?
I hear its quite a full timetable? can you elaborate on that...like how long would typical college day be?
And also if i did decide after a year or two that the course was too difficult for me do you think the college would allow me to transfer into a dofferent course within my abilities??

Sorry i know thats and awful long question but if anyone could help i'd very much appreciate it! Thanks:)

Hi was wondering if you ended up doing this course? I'm thinking of doing it and would you reccomend it?

Irishgirl007

I'm a leaving cert student and I'm really considering studying clinical measurement after my exams. I don't do physics or chemistry in school but I do higher level maths and biology. Im just wondering if I'd find this course difficult since my science subjects are limited?

TOEJOE

If your studying higher maths and Biology you should be ok excellent course and lecturers, and a good college.The points for the course have gone up over the years and a there are job placement for most of the students who complete the course.You will finish the course in the new campus in Grangegorman which should be exciting.

banana12

Hi I am hoping to start this course next year! Just wondering if somebody would tell me abit more about what the job entails? Do you ever have to work nights or be in call? Especially if you work doing sleep studies or in cardiology? Thanks

banana12

Hi I am hoping to start this course next year! Just wondering if somebody would tell me abit more about what the job entails? Do you ever have to work nights or be in call? Especially if you work doing sleep studies or in cardiology? Thanks

Thembogoblin

Hey I'm currently doing the course if you still want any info on it. Nope as far as we've been told there's no over nights, even in the sleep studies all the equipment is put on by the physiologist and then they leave around 4 or 5 and return in the morning. Cardiology wouldn't really have any reason for over night physiologists. You're not on call either, it's not an a and e type situation.

LaylaLumelle05

Hi I'm starting this course in September, hope someone can answer some of my questions I'm quite worried about the maths how hard is it? I did higher level but I found it challenging, And how can I prepare for the course in general ? What's a typical weekly schedule like and how often do you have presentations ? And any other tips ?

jackleavy

Hey I’m about to start the higher diploma version of this course in September and I’m just wondering how long the thesis is, I did a thesis before and I’m just wondering if it’s a similar length/ style,

Thanks

Thembogoblin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120741005#Comment_120741005

Sorry this is incredibly delayed but just in case anyone else sees this and has similar questions ill answer.

The maths varies as does how well you cope with it. As per many science courses you do loads of maths in college but not any when you're actually working. They just want you to understand what's going on at a basic level. From my memory there's around 6 different maths modules. 3 in first year and 3 in second year. in addition to that you'll have maths questions within other modules like physics/cell biology/biochemistry ect.

How well you do in the maths depends on what lecturer you have and how much effort you put in. I've seen people fail the maths parts of the course but that's kind of a given when they don't show up to lectures or put in any effort. The college understands that a lot of people struggle with maths so they don't just leave you stranded they do have a maths support center. In addition to that extra maths classes are run in addition to the standard lectures so if you get one of the awful lecturers you can always lean on the other lecturers and the MSLC for help. So i really wouldn't discourage anyone from doing the course because they felt they were bad at maths. I know I came out of the leaving ordinary levels maths by the skin of my teeth.

You can prepare for the course by just enjoying your summer. Other than that first year is basic science so they really don't expect anyone to know much. You'll for sure burn yourself out if you preparing for the course. Maybe get some folders and stationary though, unless you have a tablet you can draw on you'll be writing down the majority of your notes.

Weekly schedules change depending on the year you're in but I do remember first year being very busy. I think most days were a standard 10 to 6 and then there was one or two labs that were ran until 8pm. But that's standard for most science degrees. Presentations really aren't that often. I've probably done less than 10. They're also not as bad as you think they are because you know full well no one is actually paying attention.

I'd honestly say the biggest thing you should be worried about is just some of the lecturers being difficult. They're part of the physics school so they don't really want to teach. That being said though the ones you meet that are lovely and absolutely make up for it.

A lot of people tend to think the course is like nursing for some reason so if you're expecting it to be like that then I'm so sorry. You'll be really disappointed.

Thembogoblin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120962598#Comment_120962598

Again sorry this is so late. You've for sure either started or decided it wasn't for you. Unfortunately I've only done one thesis so I've nothing to compare it to but I'll tell you what i know.

Its about 50 pages not including references or index. You decide on your topic and it has to be related to your major that you'll be doing work experience in. Originally you were supposed to do some kind of small scale test. You didn't have to come up with your own theory or anything just like confirm that someone else's work is correct. I think they've stopped that now because of worries around it. You explain your method and what you conclude from your data and also include a lit review. they do run a projects module in final year so you're not entirely on your own.

If you've done a thesis before you're for sure at a better starting position than the undergrads anyways.

Meanman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121256864#Comment_121256864

This course is now available in ATU (Sligo) for anyone considering it. Accomodation will be cheaper and more available than Dublin

Thembogoblin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121256919#Comment_121256919

It is indeed, last I heard though they didn't have enough lecturers though. I think I myself would be worried about p doing a course that had just started up as there's bound to be issues that just need ironing.

Theres also a similar course run by Ulster College (I think the only difference if you do more placement and choose disciplines earlier) and a masters/postgrad run by cork.

lilyc_6

I’m a current LC student and this is my top course on my CAO for next year. However, I don’t take physics or chemistry ( I do HL maths biology and computer science )

I don’t want to fall behind in my first year. I don’t know if this page is even active still but I’d appreciate if someone had any information on how hard/ difficult they are for a newbie like me lol

Holly1445

I am currently in 3rd year of the course. I never did physics or chemistry either so you will be fine. You will get a good grounding on first and second year and the fact you do higher maths. The first couple of years are really just there to help you improve in core science subjects and aren't too specific to the clinical measurement itself.