Rad Chat is a podcast going from strength to strength, having produced more than 200 episodes, winning multiple awards, achieving more than 100,000 listens and supporting both patients and healthcare professionals.

Now two years since it was launched, co-hosts Jo McNamara and Naman Julka-Anderson have spoken with Synergy and said that they’re more excited than ever to be hosting the podcast.

Most recently, the pair’s work has been accredited by professional body the Royal College of Nursing, allowing nurses to use an episode about palliative care from May 2022, as evidence of continuing professional development for oncology.

Rad Chat is already accredited through the SoR for this kind of CPD, and Naman and Jo added that it would be “great” to work with other professional bodies to gain CPD accreditation. The pair have already had talks with the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR), in hopes of allowing the podcast to be used for internal training.

So how has Rad Chat changed, over the two years since its inception?

The patient voice

Both Naman and Jo explained their passion for the podcast arose from wanting to emphasise the importance of radiotherapy as a cancer treatment.

Naman said: “We have merged interests – promoting the profession, of course, but you don’t get to hear the patient voice that often. As a professional, you see the patient face to face, but not across the entire pathway from diagnosis to after treatment, you don’t get that.”

The podcast follows ‘streams’, each with different kinds of interviews, one of which is the ‘Living With and Beyond Cancer’ stream, which asks patients how they felt about their radiotherapy, their reaction, how they were treated.

Naman continued: “If one of their loved ones has died, they come on to talk about that experience. It’s just really raw. You don’t get that anywhere. That’s what we want to do – get the patient voice across. If you can motivate people, remind them why they want to do radiotherapy in the first place, they might not want to leave. Everything links back to the patient.”

Rad Chat also works with charities and grassroots organisations as an intermediary, helping to connect them to professionals, organisations or evidence-based information.

Social media, Jo explained, has been a significant driver for their ability to connect people, while also enabling patients and other listeners to have a greater voice in the topics covered, the interviews planned, and the events attended.

When Rad Chat began, the two just used social media as a way of publicising the episodes. However, as the podcast grew, accounts began to receive messages from patients, asking questions like: ‘I’m about to go in for radiotherapy, can you tell me more? What can I expect? What is it going to feel like?’

Patient anxiety tended to increase without preparation before treatment, Jo explained. She began to use social media to provide education – two-minute videos of how linear accelerators (LINACs) work, the technical details behind its operation, and the reasoning behind radiotherapy departments being “hidden in a maze.”

“One of our most listened-to podcasts is ‘What Is Radiotherapy?’,” Jo added. “I think that’s a testament in itself to the fact people are looking for that information.”

Recruitment and retention

As one of Jo’s roles at Sheffield Hallam as admissions lead, promoting the profession is one of her “absolute passions”, she said. As chair of the Outreach and Promotion Special Interest Group at the Society, Jo found out firsthand how hard it is to reach people that are thinking about careers, whether children thinking about their future, adults looking to change their jobs, or people who have just been made redundant.

Part of their goal with Rad Chat is to promote the roles of Therapeutic and Diagnostic Radiographers, giving people a chance to see “behind the scenes.”

Jo said: “That’s worked really well. We’ve been able to use the voice of a lot of people who are working in various roles – advanced practitioner, consultant radiographer, specialist roles like in proton therapy – to give people an idea of the scope of practice, what is achievable. We’ve interviewed Therapeutic Radiographers who are now working in management or leadership roles.

“It’s not always transparent, when you’re 18 and looking through a prospectus. It’s brilliant that we’re able to share career pathways and stories, to promote the vast roles in oncology. With the cost of living crisis right now, more people are using portfolio careers to their advantage – people working in radiotherapy whilst having an Etsy business on the side, or maybe doing a podcast!”

‘An incredible transformation’

Working on Rad Chat has not just been a positive experience for patients and prospective radiographers – both Jo and Naman emphasised that their experience working on the podcast has transformed the way they work in the profession.

“I am a different Therapeutic Radiographer now than I was when we started Rad Chat,” Jo said. “And I’d been qualified for 20 years before that. It’s been an incredible transformation. That’s down to the wider oncology community that I’ve gotten access to, but largely thanks to patients. 

“I’ve learned so much about being sensitive to a patient’s needs from hearing the patient voice. Learning from the patient, I’m much more acutely aware of how my practice could potentially change to support them better, which I in turn bring into my education of the future workforce”

Naman emphasised the importance of the crossover between the podcast and practice in his own learning as well.

He added: “I’m a lot braver with asking people difficult questions, talking about topics we pride ourselves on. At the beginning, we always wanted to have the info. Actually, it’s about the guest and their expertise.”

Innovation in healthcare was also a significant centrepoint for Rad Chat, Naman explained. With the constant advancements in radiotherapy, having the podcast as a central touchpoint for radiographers across the world was “amazing.”

He described a webinar the two had done for Breast Cancer Now on Facebook Live which had achieved 34,000 concurrent viewers.

“That’s what I’ve learned, the power of what we’re doing on so many people,” he added.

“We’ve had people tell us they’ve changed their practice from all across the world, for all different things – implementing advice on reactions of different skin types, on sex and intimacy, listeners reaching out to industry people we’ve spoken to and bringing in a new innovation, or a new technology. 

Lessons from listening

Jo said that any advice she would give to readers would be similar to that which she gives to her students – to not underestimate the power of continuing professional development.

She explained that as a lecturer she does lots of reading for her academic work, using papers from across the oncology pathway – which has opened her eyes to other areas in cancer treatment.

“As Therapeutic Radiographers, our scope of practice changes, and having knowledge of what the cancer patients are going through can be absolutely vital. We can’t say to a patient, ‘that’s the chemotherapy doing that- don’t ask me a question about that’. We need to think holistically for our patients, use every single opportunity and interaction we get with them. 

“A lot of healthcare professionals, including Therapeutic Radiographers, feel under pressure time-wise constantly. But that time is still a privilege – so can you offer advice and support for that patient, with the five minutes you have to talk? If they take that on board, you could change their life in the future.”

The importance of a supportive peer group could not be underestimated, Jo continued.

“Always surround yourself with people who ask challenging questions, who challenge your behaviour, because it makes you better at your job. 

Naman agreed, adding radiographers shouldn’t underestimate how powerful their voice can be to change something.