Surg Onc Rotation - Can I Skip it?

[IncognitoMD]

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I was just wondering if it would look poorly to not do the surg onc rotation.

I heard at my school it is just brutal, you're unfairly graded, and do not get to do much. The chance of a LOR is minimal. So, I really do not want to go down this path if I don't have too .

I'm interested from an application point of view, so I don't care if it would be a great experience in general, if it provided no help to get into rad onc residency.

Any thoughts? Thx in advance.

 

[stephew]

sure. why not.

 

[IncognitoMD]

I was told by my PD that I should take it 🙁

That prb means i should huh?

 

[achybrachy]

I was told by my PD that I should take it 🙁

That prb means i should huh?

I had this same experience. My advisor for picking my MS4 rotations was the radonc chairman, and he told me to take a surg onc rotation and potentially get a letter out of it. Well it wasn't really a great rotation and due to aways etc. any letter resulting from it would have come in pretty late anyway. But I ended up doing the rotation anyway. It's good to involve those kinds of people in your curriculum planning and definitely good to get to know the higher ups in the department, but it can come back to bite you.

To answer your question, I obviously would do it if the PD told you directly to do it. It might not matter, but then again it might. I suppose it ultimately depends on how badly you want to match in your own program I guess.

On the other hand, if the PD hadn't said anything, I don't think it would have been necessary. I certainly don't think everyone does one. I'm not doing a med onc rotation.

 

[napoleondynamite]

A good way around this may be to schedule the rotation toward the end of your 4th year.. Then you could have it appear on your schedule to keep your PD happy..then back out after the match 😎

 

[IndyXRT]

A good way around this may be to schedule the rotation toward the end of your 4th year.. Then you could have it appear on your schedule to keep your PD happy..then back out after the match 😎

Sounds like a good compromise. I don't think anyone (other than your PD, apparently) will be looking for a surgical oncology rotation on your transcript.

 

[IncognitoMD]

Thanks for all the advice guys,

This is actually for my 3rd year rotation, not a 4th year elective.

Our surgery rotation is split into 2 blocks that are 4 weeks each. Anyways, I was wondering if I would get in trouble when applying if they ask me "Why didn't you rotate in Surg Onc for your one of your blocks?"

Sounds like ppl don't care - Thank goodness!

 

[CNphair]

Thanks for all the advice guys,

This is actually for my 3rd year rotation, not a 4th year elective.

Our surgery rotation is split into 2 blocks that are 4 weeks each. Anyways, I was wondering if I would get in trouble when applying if they ask me "Why didn't you rotate in Surg Onc for your one of your blocks?"

Sounds like ppl don't care - Thank goodness!

Nobody is going to care. Most students never do such a rotation. Now, your PD...come up with a good reason that you didn't do it just in case he asks. "I didn't want to work that hard," though true - and perfectly valid - won't work. But chances are good that the PD won't even remember his recommendation come interview time.

 

[3dtp]

Nobody is going to care. Most students never do such a rotation. Now, your PD...come up with a good reason that you didn't do it just in case he asks. "I didn't want to work that hard," though true - and perfectly valid - won't work. But chances are good that the PD won't even remember his recommendation come interview time.

I'd take it, but see if you can do it as an away rotation elective somewhere else. Reason: Radiation Therapy is intimately associated with surgery as a local/regional control modality. Actually seeing what the surgeons do I think helps understand why and where we need to put radiation. I think this is becoming increasingly important as we become increasingly "conformal." (See the Accuray v. Leksell discussion on the cyberknife thread). By actually seeing a few cases and some positive nodes on a resection and where they are, will help you visualize how to set your fields when you're aiming the beams.

Just my opinion. Our program offers a surgical oncology elective rotatation for rad onc residents and we have a very close working relationship with our surgeons as well as the medical oncologists.