expectations as a PGY-2 rad onc resident?

[cyberknife]

hi everyone - i'm sure there are many of us getting ready to finish intern year and start our rad onc residencies in a few weeks.

i did a one month rad onc rotation as a 4th year and that's about it other than some research. most of my rotation time was spent seeing new and follow up patients. i didn't really get a chance to contour that much either.

didn't really get any exposure to treatment planning, physics, dosimetry, or bio. for the current residents, what are the knowledge expectations of a first year rad onc resident in these areas? not really sure if i should try to cram before i start.

thank you!

Cyberknife

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[Gfunk6]

Really excellent advice by wagy27. I concur whole-heartedly.

 

[thesauce]

Agree with the above. In particular, I would concentrate on workup and staging in the beginning.

 

[deleted4401]

It's really hard! It was for me, as it was completely different than any doctoring I'd learned.

Wagy's advice is comprehensive and not much to add. The one thing I found I had leaned on more as a junior resident was the NCCN guidelines. If you follow them for work-up, staging, and treatment, you're doing it right. I use them every day still

 

[napoleondynamite]

Excellent advice. However, personally I disagree with focusing on radbio/physics - I think you can cram for that during your third year. Very hard to cram in the clinical stuff.

My strategy was to "coast" in radbio/physics as at my program you sit in lectures 3 hours a week anyway and can passively absorb quite a bit just on that. Triaging, I focused my reading on the clinical stuff until PGY4 when I finally decided to read Hall and start doing some physics problems.

I know this is heresy and most probably disagree with that strategy, but that was my approach and I jumped through that boards hoop just fine.

 

[medgator]

I know this is heresy and most probably disagree with that strategy, but that was my approach and I jumped through that boards hoop just fine.

I hate to say it, but you're right. ASTRO study guides + Maryland Review course = money for passing radbio. Caggiano notes + tons of RAPHEX exams got me through physics. Part of it though, is that at many programs, Radbio and Physics are one-year courses that are repeated each year for three years. You can coast, and gradually soak in the info during that time.