I must say that I don’t get the appeal of trying to outdo each other insulting our field -I guess it is cathartic or something? Do you regret going into rad onc?... I know I don’t.
I regret it. Not 'wake up in the kick my dog in the stomach' angry/bitter regret it, but I fully regret it. I do not see a future here. The more I work and the more "successful" I become, the more I appreciate how low the ceiling is relative to the previous generations. Ceiling defined as finances, academic time/opportunities, autonomy in practice, you name it. Don't care or endorse the snark posts, for what I put in this was a bad choice and due to the timesink of so many years of training and the outrageous debt, I can't undo my choice without hurting me more. The field is also setup that once you are in, you have to be really, really bad to be out. Generation of docs grandfathered in, the current maintenance of certification is about as hard as coloring within the lines (and even gives you enough time to look up the answers while you are doing it!). Great in terms of stress if you are in practice, bad in terms of refreshing a labor force and providing opportunity to new physicians, because the previous has no pressure to leave. Ever. Which is fine unless you dramatically increase training slots without adjusting for retirement age.... oh wait.
Here's my broken record
The supply of radiation oncologists is expected to grow more quickly than the demand for radiation therapy from 2015 to 2025. Further research is needed to determine whether this is an appropriate correction or will result in excess capacity.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Old news, since then APM (reimbursement decline), CMS advisory changes (don't have to have body at Linac, we can even have academic leaders brag about doing academics while they are 'tele'supervising some poor soul at the machine), provide only downward pressure. Even here we are arguing about doing 5 fx breast because '3 weeks is too long', even though 1 Gy difference and cosmetic outcomes are worse when cosmetic.
Also feel a lot of my cohort, not all, feel the same
Have to read the article, and they did a great job burying the findings, but 50% of field was concerned about oversupply. Gives some credence to 'I know people who feel the same' statements.
Residencies keep expanding, fellowships keep expanding, payments and supervision keeps shrinking, fractions keep shrinking, and the APM aka "global reimbursement cut" is still law. It was bad before the APM.
I do my best not to post this over and over, really it has been a while, but every now and again I can't resist. I regret my choice in this field, based on the above, and regret that my 'leadership' does not seem to hear the concerns of the younger cohort of practicing rad oncs. And the worst part is, I'm not even that bad at my job! It would be much easier then. Ah well, maybe next career.
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