advice for incoming rad onc PGY-2

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pulsingexopthal

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hi everybody,
as a new incoming PGY-2, i wanted to ask this forum, what is the best way to study rad onc - i'm thinking of making my own study sheets and typing them out, so i can add to them over time and have them for oral boards at the very end. anyone have any suggestions? things you wish you should have done from the beginning? things that really helped in the end? what should i absolutely remember to include in these study guides? if no thoughts, how about any enlightening advice on starting up soon?
thanks guys!

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Two learning principles should guide your efforts.

Distributed practice-Meaning consistent, relatively short burst of "studying" over extended periods of time. I tell residents to plan on reading 2-3 hours a night 3-5 days a week. (In the lingo of radonc; hyper fractionation is better than hypo fractionation)

Retrieval practice-Test yourself frequently using questions from in-service exams, etc. If you have colleagues/faculty ask them to test you as well. Calling facts to mind will increase your retention over the long term.

Good luck
 
Two learning principles should guide your efforts.

Distributed practice-Meaning consistent, relatively short burst of "studying" over extended periods of time. I tell residents to plan on reading 2-3 hours a night 3-5 days a week. (In the lingo of radonc; hyper fractionation is better than hypo fractionation)

Retrieval practice-Test yourself frequently using questions from in-service exams, etc. If you have colleagues/faculty ask them to test you as well. Calling facts to mind will increase your retention over the long term.

Good luck

No offense, but 2-3 hours a night for 3-5 days a week? That seems a little excessive, I've always been told one hour a day is a good benchmark.

Is that amount of reading truly the consensus of others?
 
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No offense, but 2-3 hours a night for 3-5 days a week? That seems a little excessive, I've always been told one hour a day is a good benchmark.

Is that amount of reading truly the consensus of others?
Yes. A good thing to do too is to read up on the cases you will be seeing (or have seen). Hopefully that will get you through most things with your rotations
 
do you guys think the consensus is then just to read and read often, or do you think there's any utility in study guides too?
 
My approach is:

1. Memorize the staging and basic treatment approaches (NCCN guidelines) for each tumor type you're seeing. Flashcards can be useful for the staging.
2. Read Perez and Brady's chapters on the disease site on which you're working.
3. Read the NCCN text at the bottom of the guidelines applicable to the sites you're working on.
4. Read the articles for the important studies--Wikibooks and blue book are both good for this.
5. Consolidate with the Hristov Q&A book.

I expect the medical students to do #1 and depending on time they can work on #2 or #3 if they like. I think all 5 steps are achievable for a three month site rotation with reading 5-10 hours a week.
 
My approach is:

1. Memorize the staging and basic treatment approaches (NCCN guidelines) for each tumor type you're seeing. Flashcards can be useful for the staging.
2. Read Perez and Brady's chapters on the disease site on which you're working.
3. Read the NCCN text at the bottom of the guidelines applicable to the sites you're working on.
4. Read the articles for the important studies--Wikibooks and blue book are both good for this.
5. Consolidate with the Hristov Q&A book.

I expect the medical students to do #1 and depending on time they can work on #2 or #3 if they like. I think all 5 steps are achievable for a three month site rotation with reading 5-10 hours a week.

I agree with neuronix. As for time, How much time you spend each reading at night depends on a lot of things. Personally, I tend to binge read at the beginning of a rotation, like 4+ hours a few days early on to get a general frame work. After that I frequently revisit the above resources tailored around the patients I'm going to see. Frequency is the key.

Most of the time I'd say I read more like an hour several nights per week. Now, there is a huge caveat and that is that we don't cross cover and we get 2 academic days per week. I really take advantage of them and read a lot on those days. Even on my clinic days I work or read the whole time I'm there to maximize my time. If I were in clinic 5 days per week I'm not sure an hour per night would be enough, even reading as much as possible while in clinic.

For people coming out of internship, reading is so much easier when your reading about what your going to do. When your interested, an hour or two of reading is nothing :)
 
2 academic days per week?!

Man we get none and our services are crazy busy. Some rotation I'm lucky if I get to sleep 5 hours!
 
2 academic days per week?!

Man we get none and our services are crazy busy. Some rotation I'm lucky if I get to sleep 5 hours!

Man, we have two services that I really don't know how you would make it without the academic days. They are off the chain busy. Last block I simulated 110 patients and saw god knows how many more consults that got treated closer to home. Academic days were planing and documentation days and clinic days were solid 13 hour stints then go home to write notes. I'm sure most places have that AND no academic days. I appreciate how lucky we are.

Those busy services kinda rock though. You don't find a lot of time to sit and read in detail but you learn so much from experience (and they are both really good teachers) by the end you have grown heads and shoulders and didn't even realize it while it was happening.

All jokes aside, we have to keep earning our academic days. We publish and present a lot. All of us have at least 1 protocol open, most more than 2. If we didn't use them properly they would go away.
 
I definitely agree there are both pros and cons to a busy service. I had aspirations for academics but now 95% leaning towards private just based on my residency experience. We only had 1 person over the last 4 years stay in academics.
 
2 academic days per week?!

Man we get none and our services are crazy busy. Some rotation I'm lucky if I get to sleep 5 hours!

I agreed to do an away rotation at another institution and now I completely empathize with you and a lot of others here on SDN. Loads of scut, limited education, high hours doing work that doesn't really teach much... It's so hard to learn in such an environment. Then it's hard to stay motivated to read on your own when demoralized and working high hours. Ugh.
 
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I agreed to do an away rotation at another institution and now I completely empathize with you and a lot of others here on SDN. Loads of scut, limited education, high hours doing work that doesn't really teach much... It's so hard to learn in such an environment. Then it's hard to stay motivated to read on your own when demoralized and working high hours. Ugh.

At least you got to experience that and can sympathize with some of your fellow peers. All I want to do when I get home is rest and staying up on studying is near impossible.

They do say we should be ready for private practice but this is not the type of training environment I initially signed up for. I guess beggars can't be choosy though.
 
At least you got to experience that and can sympathize with some of your fellow peers. All I want to do when I get home is rest and staying up on studying is near impossible.

They do say we should be ready for private practice but this is not the type of training environment I initially signed up for. I guess beggars can't be choosy though.

Dude, that sucks. It really does. Just going through training is hard. The learning curve is steep. You constantly make mistakes and question your abilities along the way. Its a humbling experience under the best of situations. That said, I love my residency. I really do. We are supported and treated so well. A lot is asked of us. We bust tail when we are there but as long as we work hard, we are rewarded for our efforts. And our graduates have done great in PP and academics. Im sorry to hear your experience has been different. Hang in there. Im sure you will be in a good position when you get out.
 
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