I have just started my residency in radiation oncology and i feel a little lost, i don't know where i should read from, there is so many recommended books and i don't know where to start from,,, as a first year resident what books i should be reading and by the end of this year what i should have finished before the exam in march???
Feeling lost
- Thread starter Soossak
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Take a deep breath. Everyone feels lost early. Residency is years long for a reason. There are a lot of resources to choose from. I personally like Tepper and Gunderson, and the clinical Jandbook of Radiation oncology. You can also usually get a decent start with Uptodate or the rad onc wiki.
The thing to keep in mind is these are all just good starts. They help put things in perspective for you but you will still need to reef the primary literature.
Even more important, you learn by doing. I wish my first year I payed more attention to actually delivering a plan. This takes initiative with some attendings who do a lot themselves. Look at port films. Find out how to evaluate image guided data (like CBCTs). Talk to the dosimetrists and therapists about planning, positioning etc.
And don't worry about the in service. Read for the rotations your on and then review old tests before the exam. It's graded against your peers. No one has done all disease sites by the end of first year.
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I agree with ramsesthenice and wanted to add starting off I think NCCN is good. It can be overwhelming at first but it has the basic principles, work-up and literature for almost every disease site. After that Wiki-books and so on. At least that's what I would have done differently instead of using 20 different textbooks and handbooks at the beginning.
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This is a very common phenomenon and I have counseled our PGY-2's extensively on this very topic. It is difficult in our field b/c it is so vastly different than anything you did in medical school (except for the 2-3 rotations that you did nearly 2 years ago at this point) and the learning curve is arguably the steepest of any residency as a result. Furthermore, people in our field are typically AOA, great interns, etc. and you have this general sense of accomplishment about yourself until...you begin RadOnc residency and you feel inept, sub-par and clueless because you are and that is why the residency is 4 years (which may be one year too long if you ask me, but I digress).
I would agree that RadOnc Wiki and NCCN are great places to start. You can also use one of the classic handbooks like the Roach book or the Haffty book, etc. and a lot of institutions have 3-6 page handouts on each disease site that includes all the pertinent information for that site and are updated with each morning conference. Also, don't feel like you have to buy Perez or Gunderson b/c you can do just fine without them. Finally, you should feel free to ask your chief residents and/or attendings anything whether it is about prescribing to certain isodose lines, how to generate an ITV, how to put together the instruments for a tandem and ovoid procedure, etc. We (chief residents) are here to help, guide and educate so that you start to feel competent.
Best of luck.Similar threads
